Photodegradation of benzoic acid catalyzed by iron in the atmospheric environment

Photodegradation of benzoic acid, one of the major degradation products of petroleum hydrocarbons, in the presence of dissolved iron(III) species was studied. Benzoic acid had two absorption peaks at wavelengths of 229 and 274 nm. Addition of iron(III) species into a benzoic acid solution resulted in neither a significant wavelength shift nor an increase in absorbance for each absorption peak, suggesting that the formation of an inner-sphere complex between benzoic acid and iron(III) is negligible under the experimental conditions. Thus, the benzoic acid-iron complex might not be considered to be a major photochemical precursor for the formation of OH radicals in the system studied. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 223rd ACS National Meeting (Orlando, FL 4/7-11/2002).