Ultrasound assisted photocatalytic degradation of diclofenac in an aqueous environment.

Diclofenac (DF) is an anti-inflammatory drug found in aqueous environments as a pollutant due to its widespread use. The sonolytic, photocatalytic and sonophotocatalytic degradation of DF using three photocatalysts (TiO(2), ZnO and Fe-ZnO) were studied. The degradation of DF followed first-order like kinetics. The sonophotocatalytic degradation using TiO(2) under UV-vis radiation showed a slight synergistic enhancement in the degradation of the parent compound, whereas a detrimental effect was observed for the mineralization process. In the case of Fe-ZnO, both degradation and mineralization showed near additive effects. A number of degradation products were identified. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.