Abstract
Degradation of acid orange 7 (AO 7) in aqueous solution was investigated by an integrated microwave irradiation/granular activated carbon adsorption method. Reaction kinetics of AO 7 decay were found to consist of a reaction and a stagnant stage, while two characteristic constants, the initial AO 7 decay rate and the final oxidative capacity of this process, are successfully derived and used to describe the two stages, respectively. A proposed model and the way to solve the two characteristic constants (the initial decay rate and the final oxidative capacity) are capable of describing the AO 7 degradation precisely under microwave irradiation at different reaction conditions.