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Ionizing technologies are used for disinfection and treatment of different industrial wastewaters. For this purpose, the radiolytic degradation of ibuprofen (IBP), selected within the main detected pharmaceuticals in different water locations with different concentrations, was investigated. Irradiation was performed with a gamma irradiator (60Co) and with electron beam accelerator. The degree of ibuprofen degradation was monitored following the evolution of its absorbance, the residual concentration by HPLC, carbon oxygen demand and total organic carbon. The degradation of IBP was higher than the removal of TOC or COD and reached 95% according to residual concentration. This pollutant (at 0.1 mM) was totally degraded when irradiated at 3 kGy and needed higher doses (7–10 kGy) for the highest concentrations (0.8–1 mM). The addition of 1 mM of persulfate ion remarkably enhanced IBP degradation by around 2 and 2.8 times for 5 and 10 kGy, respectively. Pseudo-first-order reaction kinetics could be used to depict the degradation process of IBP in all conditions. Electrical energy per order (EEO) was estimated under various conditions. The smallest EEO was obtained when gamma radiation and persulfate ion were combined. The possible degradation pathways of IBP were proposed. The results achieved in this study can be used to optimize large-scale application of nuclear techniques in water treatment in particular in treating pharmaceutical effluents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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