RESUMO
The kinetic rules of degradation were studied in ultrasonic airlift loop reactor (UALR) in which O3 was introduced as oxidant and the organophosphorus pesticide dimethoate was used as typical contaminant. It was found that the dimethoate degradations under the individual ultrasonic radiation treatment without O3 (US), the oxidation of O3 gas (O3) and the synergetic effect of UALR and O3 (UALR/O3) were all consonant with the apparent first-order reaction by the kinetics investigations. The dimethoate removal rates of US, O3 and UALR/O3 methodologies under the conditions of dimethoate initial concentration of 50 mg/L, initial solution pH of 6.0, dimethoate solution volume of 80 mL, ultrasonic intensity of 0.5 W/cm2, O3 flow of 200 L/h, temperature of 20 degrees C and the treatment time of 4 h were 27%, 15% and 90%, respectively. Under these conditions, the rate constant enhancement factor of dimethoate degradation reached 4.816. Furthermore, a simplified mechanistic kinetic model was derived from the degradation mechanism of the synergetic effect of US, O3 and hydroxyl free radical (*OH) in the UALR/O3 system.