Photocatalytic Degradation of Some Antibiotics in Aqueous Solution

Antibiotics are emerging contaminants in the aquatic environment because of their adverse effects on aquatic life and humans. Antibiotics wastewater has high COD and very low BOD5, and hence is difficult to treat biologically. The objective of this research was to study the feasibility of using the ultraviolet (UV)/titanium dioxide (TiO2) photocatalytic process to degrade the antibiotics amoxicillin, ampicillin and cloxicillin in aqueous solution. No significant degradation occurred by UV irradiation per se. UV/TiO2 photocatalysis was more effective for amoxicillin and cloxacillin degradation than for ampicillin degradation. pH has a great effect on amoxicillin, ampicillin and cloxacillin degradation and high degradation was achieved in both acidic and basic conditions. However, UV/TiO2 photocatalysis did not improve the biodegradability of the amoxicillin, ampicillin, and cloxacillin aqueous solution. Addition of H2O2 at optimum concentration not only achieved complete degradation of amoxicillin, ampicillin and cloxacillin but also improved the biodegradability of the antibiotics aqueous solution.