REVISED VERSIONDecomposition of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene and other industrial pollutants using pigment derivatives and visible light Benjamin Lukas

IntroductionTNT or trinitrotoluene is a yellow colored solid chemical which is made of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen atoms with a formula of C7H5N3O6. It is a highly explosive chemical but with a convenience handling properties with a melting point of 80.35 C and a boiling point of 240 C with a molecular mass of 227g/mol.

The explosive yield of TNT is considered as the standard explosive strength for bombs and other explosives

C7H5N3O6 7CO + 3N2 + 5H2O + 7CC7H5N3O6 3N2 + 5H2 + 12CO + 2C

Molecular Structure

ProductionTNT is produce in industry by nitration process of toluene in three steps :

In the first step, toluene is nitrated with a H2SO4 mixture of and HNO3 to produce mononitrotoluene ( MNT)MNT is separated and renitrated in second step to produce dinitrotoluene (DNT)In the third step, DNT is reacted with anhydrous mixture of fuming nitric acid and oleum to produce crude trinitrotoluene (Crude TNT)

Crude TNT is then purified by washing with Na2SO3 in order to remove less stable isomers of TNT and unwanted products from TNT.Pure TNT obtained from sulfitation process is then washed with water, the rinse water is called the red water, a pollutant, which needs to be treated

PRODUCTION

PropertiesThere are 2 main properties:1. TNT is Explosive2. TNT is toxic causing:Skin irritation with the skin turn bright yellow orange colors hence called cannary skin.AnemiaAbnormality liver functionsReduced male fertility Probable carcinogen

Problems-Red WaterFor every pound of TNT produced, 1.5 gallons of toxic/hazardous waste red water is generatedMany countries have not made TNT because of the difficulty and expensive in treating red water.An easy and inexpensive way to treat red water is needed to allow for TNT production.

Problems-Pink Water Some countries have tons of unexploded outdated TNT in storage

Demilitarization of these energetic explosives produces millions of gallons of waste water called pink water which must be treated before the water can be released to environment of water treatment facilities.

Current demilitarization explosives neutralization procedures are expensive in both their hardware and operating costs.

SOLUTION to the PROBLEMS

Treat red and pink water waste streams with pigment derivative which act as photocatalyst to destroy the hazardous compounds with the help of visible light and air.

As photocatalyst is reuseable the cost of this is very cheap.

O2 is supplied in the water

HOW DOES A PHOTOCATALYST WORK?Light is absorbed by the material. In our case, blue and red light are absorbed by the catalyst promoting the catalyst from its ground state to excited state.

The activated catalyst then reacts with the O2 to produce reactive oxygen species which reacts with undesired compounds (pollutants) breaking them down into harmless components..

Pollutants that can be broken down to gases

TRI NITRO TOLUENE (TNT)DI NITRO TOLUENE (DNT)MONO NITRO TOLUENE (MNT)BENZENETOLUENEDINITROBENZENENITROBENZENEPHENOL AND ITS DERs such as Hydroquinone etc

WHAT LIGHT SOURCES CAN BE USED? Other commercial catalyst can only be activated using only Blue light but for our catalysts Blue and Red lights can be used at the same time.The best light source is sunlight but other visible light source such as any headlamp can also be used.The intensity of blue and red lights of sunlight vary with time.