Chemical effect of swirling jet-induced cavitation: Degradation of rhodamine B in aqueous solution

The chemical effect of swirling jet-induced cavitation was investigated with the decomposing reaction of rhodamine B in aqueous solution. It was found that rhodamine B in aqueous solution can be degraded with swirling jet-induced cavitation and the degradation can be described by a pseudo-first-order kinetics. The effects of operating conditions such as pressure, temperature, initial concentration of rhodamine B, pH of water on the degradation rate of rhodamine B were discussed. It was found that the degradation rate of rhodamine B increased with increasing pressure and decreased with increasing initial concentration. It was also found that the degradation of rhodamine B was strongly dependent of temperature and pH of aqueous solution. The oxidation efficiency of swirling jet-induced cavitation for rhodamine B degradation was discussed and compared with ultrasonic cavitation. The result indicated that the swirling jet-induced cavitation is more energy efficient as compared to sonochemical cavitation. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.