AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH © 2014, Science Huβ, http://www.scihub.org/AJSIR ISSN: 2153-649X, doi:10.5251/ajsir.2014.5.3.97.103 Preliminary photochemical studies of fluorene in various aqueous media Marian Asantewah Nkansah* Department of Chemistry, KNUST, Kumasi-Ghana maan4gr@yahoo.co.uk, Alfred A. Christy Department of Science, Faculty of Engineering and Science, University of Agder Service Box 422, NO-4604, Kristiansand, Norway Tanja Barth Department of Chemistry, University of Bergen, Allégaten 41, N-5007 Bergen, Norway George W. Francis Department of Chemistry, University of Bergen, Allégaten 41, N-5007 Bergen, Norway ABSTRACT The current study investigates the direct photochemical degradation of aqueous fluorene with the aid of a 125W polychromatic medium, pressure Hg lamp. The purpose was to test the effectiveness of the lamp in irradiation using fluorene spiked solution as substrate. A 700 ml volume of fluorene solution of 0.002 mg/l was irradiated batch-wise at 1, 3, 6, 12, 18, 24 and 48 h. The amount of fluorene removal was studied for fluorene solutions prepared from , neutral (distilled water), acidic (by adjusting pH with hydrochloric acid, HCl), basic (by adjusting pH with sodium hydroxide, NaOH) and saline (addition of sodium chloride, NaCl) solutions and there was 95.95, 92.35, 96.65 and 97.15 % removal respectively after 48 h of irradiation. The major degradation product identified was fluorenone. The different media did not significantly affect the rate of fluorene degradation. Keywords: Direct photolysis, aqueous fluorene, ultraviolet light, degradation, media INTRODUCTION Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have two or more fused aromatic rings in linear, angular, or cluster arrangements and are of either natural (biogenic and geochemical) or anthropogenic (oxygen deficient combustion of carbon based materials) origin (Bamforth & Singleton, 2005). PAHs show relatively low water solubility (Abd- Elsalam et al., 2009) and concentrations in the range between 0.1-830 ng are normal in fresh water (Kabzinski et al., 2002), but they are both toxic and carcinogenic and their finding in industrial and municipal effluents (Shemer & Linden, 2007) together with a tendency to bioaccumulate in aquatic organisms (Sabate et al., 2001) makes them prime targets for remediation. A number of chemical and biological methods have been used for this (Srujana & Khan, 2012; Gasron et al., 2004; Ferrarese et al., 2008; Hughes et al., 1999) with bioremediation being widely explored due to its low cost and technical advantages (Yuzeng et al., 2000). Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) for water treatment which involve the use of O 3 , H 2 O 2 , and/or UV light for removing organic contaminants are also widely used (Shemer and Linden 2007; Ledakowicz et al., 1999). Hydroradicals which are generated in AOP’s destroy organic contaminants in situ. The free radicals generated can react to mineralise the pollutants completely and may also lead to the formation of highly polar and soluble products including phenols, quinones and acids (Shemer & Linden, 2007). A variety of UV sources have been used directly in photodegradation (Sanches et al., 2011). The efficiency of UV light for degradation depends on the