| Summary: | Patulin (PAT), a mycotoxin found mainly in matured apples, is produced by different species of fungi, mainly <i>Penicillium expansum,</i> and is found in various fruits and vegetables used to produce juice. Little focus has been placed on nano-technological methods for the mitigation of this problem. In this work, carbon-encapsulated nano-zero valent iron (CE-nZVI) particles were synthesized and used as heterogeneous Fenton agents for the degradation of PAT in apple juice. The particles were found to have a spherical shape with a diameter of 130 ± 50 nm. In a heterogeneous Fenton degradation (involving CE-nZVI) process, a concentration of 0.05 g/L CE-nZVI with 0.5 mM H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> was used. Since the Fenton oxidation process is pH-dependent, placebo degradation was observed at varying pH conditions with an average percentage of PAT degradation of 27.8%, 87.0%, 98.0%, and 99.75% at pH 6, 5, 4.5, and 3.5 respectively, between 1 min to 4 h in a water matrix. In a juice matrix, at the regular pH of juice (3.6), percentage PAT degradation of 72% and 89% was obtained after a 2-h treatment using heterogeneous Fenton oxidation (CE-nZVI/H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub>) systems, using 0.5 mM H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> and 1 mM H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub>, respectively.
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