The degradation and mineralization of 4-chlorophenol (4-CP) by advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) was investigated in this work, using both of UV/H2O2 and photo-Fenton UV/H2O2/Fe+3 systems.The reaction was influenced by the input concentration of H2O2, the amount of the iron catalyst, the type of iron salt, the pH and the concentration of 4-CP. A colored solution of benzoquinon can be observed through the first 5 minutes of irradiation time for UV/H2O2 system when low concentration (0.01mol/L) of H2O2 was used. The colored solution of benzoquinon could also be observed through the first 5 minutes for the UV/H2O2/Fe+3 system at high
concentration (100ppm) of 4-CP. The results have shown that adding Fe+3 to the UV/H2O2 system enhanced the rate of 4-CP oxidation at a molar ratio of H2O2/Fe+3/4-CP equals to 13/0.4/1 by a factor of 7. This reduced the consumption of H2O2 by a factor of 6 and the irradiation time required for complete degradation was reduced by a factor of 6. The experimental results have shown that the optimum reagents for a complete degradation of 4-CP(50ppm) were H2O2.=0.005mol/L, Fe+3=0.16*10-3 mol/L under acidic
condition (pH=3) and irradiation time of 15 min for the UV/H2O2/Fe+3 system with a molar ratio of H2O2/Fe+3/4-CP equals to 13/0.4/1.
