A Model Study of the Photochemical Fate of As(III) in Paddy-Water

The APEX software (Aqueous Photochemistry of Environmentally-occurring Xenobiotics) was used to model the photochemistry of As(III) in paddy-field water, allowing comparison with biotic processes. The model included key paddy-water variables, such as the shielding effect of the rice canopy on incident sunlight and its monthly variations, water pH, and the photochemical parameters of the chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) occurring in paddy fields. The half-life times (t1/2) of As(III) photo-oxidation to As(V) would be ∼20-30 days in May. In contrast, the photochemical oxidation of As(III) would be much slower in June and July due to rice-canopy shading of radiation because of plant growth, despite higher sunlight irradiance. At pH < 8 the photo-oxidation of As(III) would mainly be accounted for by reaction with transient species produced by irradiated CDOM (here represented by the excited triplet states 3CDOM*, neglecting the possibly more important reactions with poorly known species such as the phenoxy radicals) and, to a lesser extent, with the hydroxyl radicals (HO·). However, the carbonate radicals (CO3·-) could be key photooxidants at pH > 8.5 provided that the paddy-water 3CDOM* is sufficiently reactive toward the oxidation of CO32-. In particular, if paddy-water 3CDOM* oxidizes the carbonate anion with a second-order reaction rate constant near (or higher than) 106 M-1 s-1, the photooxidation of As(III) could be quite fast at pH > 8.5. Such pH conditions can be produced by elevated photosynthetic activity that consumes dissolved CO2.