The degradation of acetic acid and nitrobenzene in water by O_3/UV.

Acetic acid in water was degraded utilizing O3/UV and O3/H2O2. The removal rate of acetic acid by O3/UV was only 3% higher than that of ozonation alone after 60min treating under the same condition, but O3/H2O2 degraded completely acetic acid under these conditions. However, O3/UV showed better oxidative degradation ability in nitrobenzene treatment process. The by-product H2O2 produced in the nitrobenzene degradation process played important role in the removal of organic compound; therefore, the increase of O3/UV oxidative degradation ability might be caused in two aspects: the activation of UV light on organic compound, and the production of free hydroxyl of high activity from medium product H2O2 catalytic decomposition of ozone. The efficiency of free hydroxyl generation from catalytic decomposition of ozone by single UV light was very low.