Ultrasonically enhanced electrochemical oxidation of ibuprofen

•Ultrasound assisted electrochemical degradation of ibuprofen.•The degradation step followed pseudo first order reaction.•IBP degraded at 30 V, 1000 kHz, 100 W L−1 and 298 K in 1 h.•In 1 h, 89.32% degradation was achieved using NaOH.

A hybrid advanced oxidation process combining sonochemistry (US) and electrochemistry (EC) for the batch scale degradation of ibuprofen was developed. The performance of this hybrid reactor system was evaluated by quantifying on the degradation of ibuprofen under the variation in electrolytes, frequency, applied voltage, ultrasonic power density and temperature in aqueous solutions with a platinum electrode. Among the methods examined (US, EC and US/EC), the hybrid method US/EC resulted 89.32%, 81.85% and 88.7% degradations while using NaOH, H2SO4 and deionized water (DI), respectively, with a constant electrical voltages of 30 V, an ultrasound frequency of 1000 kHz, and a power density of 100 W L−1 at 298 K in 1 h. The degradation was established to follow pseudo first order kinetics. In addition, energy consumption and energy efficiencies were also calculated. The probable mechanism for the anodic oxidation of ibuprofen at a platinum electrode was also postulated.