Removal of carbamazepine from aqueous solution using sono-activated persulfate process

• 89.4% CBZ removal could be obtained using combined ultrasound/persulfate process.
• The removal process of CBZ in solution could be described using pseudo-first-order kinetics.
• A synergistic effect occurs between the single persulfate system and the single ultrasound system.

This study investigated systematically the removal of carbamazepine (CBZ) in solution using the combination of ultrasound and persulfate anions to identify the factors affecting the kinetics of the process. The effects of reaction time, initial persulfate anion concentration, initial CBZ concentration, ultrasonic power input, solution pH and temperature on CBZ removal efficiency were examined. The sulfate radical oxidation of CBZ in the presence of ultrasonic irradiation showed a significant synergistic effect on CBZ removal. It is found that up to 89.4% CBZ removal efficiency was achieved after 120 min reaction. The removal process of CBZ in solution could be described using pseudo-first-order kinetics. In this system, sulfate radicals (SO4−) were considered to be the mainly oxidant to remove CBZ while ultrasound power input could affect CBZ removal efficiency significantly. Changing solution pH influenced the CBZ removal efficiency and the best performance would be achieved at pH 5.0.