Degradation of Active Brilliant Red X‐3B by a microwave discharge electrodeless lamp in the presence of activated carbon

Abstract

Degradation of Active Brilliant Red X‐3B (X‐3B) in aqueous solution by a microwave discharge electrodeless lamp (MDEL) in the presence of activated carbon was investigated. The preliminary results proved this method could effectively degrade X‐3B in aqueous solution. The removal percentages of colour and chemical oxygen demand were up to approximately 99% and 66%, respectively, at the conditions of 0.8 g/L dye concentration, 20 g/L activated carbon, pH 7.0 and 8 min microwave irradiation time. The degradation basically belonged to first‐order reaction kinetics and its rate constant was 0.42 min−1. No aromatic organics were detected in the final treated solution, indicating that the mineralization was relatively complete. By studying the change in solution properties, it could be concluded that MDEL‐assisted oxidation was the dominant reaction mechanism. In addition, the influence of operational parameters and reuse of activated carbon were also discussed.