AbstractThe kinetics of the degradation of metribuzin by water-soluble colloidal MnO2 in acidic medium (HClO4) were studied spectrophotometrically in the absence and presence of surfactants. The experiments were performed under pseudo-first-order reaction conditions in respect of MnO2. The degradation was observed to be of the first order in respect of MnO2 while of fractional order for both metribuzin and HClO4. The rate constant for the degradation of metribuzin was observed to decrease as the concentration of MnO2 increased. The anionic surfactant, sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS), was observed to be ineffective whereas the non-ionic surfactant, Triton X-100 (TX-100), accelerated the reaction rate. However, the cationic surfactant, cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB), caused flocculation with oppositely-charged colloidal MnO2; hence further study was not possible. The catalytic effect of TX-100 was discussed in the light of the available mathematical model. The kinetic data were exploited to generate the various activation parameters for the oxidative degradation of metribuzin by colloidal MnO2 in the absence as well as the presence of the non-ionic surfactant, TX-100.
