Ultrasonic decomposition of a mixture of phenol and p-chlorophenol in aqueous solution

The ultrasonic decomposition of a mixture of two hydrophilic organic compounds, phenol and p-chlorophenol, in aqueous solution was investigated. The effect of the initial concentration of phenol and p-chlorophenol on the overall decomposition rate was examined experimentally. The overall decomposition rate constant of p-chlorophenol became lower as the initial concentration of phenol increased. The overall decomposition rate constant of phenol decreased with increasing initial concentration of p-chlorophenol, and remained unchanged when the initial concentration of p-chlorophenol was above a certain value. It was considered that phenol was decomposed by thermal degradation in addition to OH radical degradation. The decomposition of a mixture of phenol and p-chlorophenol in aqueous solution was simply modeled and kinetic analysis was performed. It was found that the initial decomposition rate of p-chlorophenol was higher than that of phenol due to OH radical degradation. The OH radicals were effectively used to decompose p-chlorophenol and phenol.