Abstract
Water samples from two types of sources: partially treated sewage generated by a medium-sized city, with a high quantity of
total coliforms and partially treated industrial wastewater, which contained mostly petroleum products from refineries, were
treated using the same concentration of TiO2 catalyst, for different exposure periods. UV-Vis and fluorescence spectroscopic
evaluation of the composition changes of wastewaters under non selective oxidation conditions (achieved by photocatalysis)
revealed that the higher removal rate was obtained for the industrial water sample compared to the sewage water sample, with
respect to oxidation time. Considering the diverse characteristics and the solution matrix effects of the wastewaters, UV-Vis and
fluorescence spectra revealed different patterns by increasing the quantity of TiO2 catalyst from 0.25 mg mL-1 to 1 mg mL-1,
denoting that the amount of total coliforms in a sample greatly impacts the degree of photocatalytic oxidation.