Semiconductor Sensitized Photodegradation of Antibiotic Tetracycline in Water using Heterogeneous Nanoparticles

Abstract

<span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:" times="" new="" roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"times="" roman";="" mso-bidi-font-family:"times="" roman";mso-ansi-language:en-us;mso-fareast-language:="" en-us;mso-bidi-language:ar-sa"="" lang="EN-US">Antibiotics have been considered emerging pollutants due to their continuous input and persistence in the aquatic ecosystem. The present paper addresses the degradation and removal processes applied to a specific class of micropollutants, the antibiotic tetracycline (<span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:" times="" new="" roman";="" mso-fareast-font-family:"times="" roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"times="" mso-ansi-language:en-us;mso-fareast-language:en-in;mso-bidi-language:ar-sa"="" lang="EN-US">TETRA)<span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:" times="" new="" roman";="" mso-fareast-font-family:"times="" roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"times="" mso-ansi-language:en-us;mso-fareast-language:en-us;mso-bidi-language:ar-sa"="" lang="EN-US">. Photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline in aqueous suspensions of titanium dioxide in the presence of titanium dioxide (TiO₂) and ultraviolet (UV) illumination was performed in a vertical circulating photocatalytic reactor. The optimum catalyst concentration was about 0.1g/L. The disappearance of tetracycline follows a pseudo-first-order kinetics according to the Langmuir–Hinshelwood (L–H) model. The activated energy for the photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline is 24.17 kJ/mol.</span></span></span>