Abstract

The study of the advanced oxidation processes involving enough quantities of "in situ" free radicals formation to produce water purification, has become a research topic of special interest in the last years. The paracetamol is one of the pharma-ceuticals frequently detected in wastewaters, surface waters, groundwaters, drinking water, soils and sediments. In this work, the intensification of paracetamol degradation in aqueous solution by ultrasound/H2O2 and ultrasound/Fenton processes was studied. The paracetamol degradation was strongly affected by the ultrasonic power and frequency, pH and the initial con-centrations of Fe2+ /H2O2. The degradation of paracetamol increases with increasing ultrasonic power. The total degradation of pharmaceutical is obtained at 60 min for all studied concentrations of hydrogen peroxide and ferrum salt. The optimal conditions of sono-Fenton process guarantee a mineralization higher than 60 % are 4.7 mmol L-1 of Fe2+ and 14.4 mmol L-1 H2O2.