Abstract：Under static experimental conditions, the effect of ultrasound on the adsorption/desorption characteristics of Zn2+ on activated carbon was investigated. Whether ultrasound application was injected in or not, the adsorption ratio of Zn2+ decreased with the increase of initial Zn2+ concentration. The isothermal adsorption experiment showed that activated carbon adsorbing Zn2+ belonged to favorable adsorption and Langmuir model agreed better with experimental data than Freundlich’s. Ultrasound inhibited the adsorption of Zn2+ on activated carbon. Desorption research found that the desorption rate of Zn2+ was only 2.11% in distilled water. When ultrasound was added in the system, the desorption rate increased to 20.8%. While, the desorption could be greatly improved by the addition of NaOH, and the desorption rate were 40.1% and 33.1% under the condition with or without ultrasound, respectively. The kinetic analysis showed that the adsorption and desorption of Zn2+ on activated carbon could be described by the second-order kinetic equation whether ultrasound was presented in the system.
