This study addresses the growing concern about the high levels of antibiotics in water, outlining an alternative for their removal. The adsorption of four representative antibiotics from commonly used families (fluoroquinolones, β-lactams, trimethoprim and sulfonamides) was performed over vegetal powdered activated carbon. The evolution of the adsorption was studied during 60 min for different initial antibiotic concentrations, not only individually but also simultaneously to determine competitive adsorption. Moreover, this research studied the adsorption isotherms and kinetics of the process, as well as the pH influence, FTIR of the Activated Carbon before and after adsorption was carried out. Trimethoprim and sulfadiazine showed more affinity for the adsorbent than amoxicillin and enrofloxacin. This trend might be attributed to their structure, capable of stablishing stronger π-π interactions with the adsorbent, which showed high affinity for the active sites of the adsorbent via FTIR. In addition, the sorption isotherms of the substances tested followed a Langmuir type isotherm, except for amoxicillin which presented similar fittings to both Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. The antibiotics followed pseudo-second order kinetics.Sulfadiazine and amoxicillin gave better performances in acidic conditions. By contrast, the sorption of trimethoprim was favored in basic environments. Variations of pH had a negligible effect on the removal of enrofloxacin.
The process TiO 2 /PAC/UV-vis has been under study and compared with the isolated treatments of adsorption and photocatalysis determining possible synergies between adsorption and photocatalysis of target antibiotics: amoxicillin, enrofloxacin, sulfadiazine, and trimethoprim. The characterization of the TiO2/PAC mixture was carried out via FESEM and FTIR. Moreover, a kinetic study has been performed. The effect of UV-vis radiation and the type of matrix was analyzed in TiO 2 /PAC/UV-vis process. The performance of this treatment has been monitored during three cycles, evaluating also the regeneration of TiO 2 /PAC mixture by UV-vis light. TiO 2 /PAC/UV-vis process allowed the removal of the antibiotics in the range 90-100% (an average removal of 93% of the initial concentration) after 60 min of treatment. However, only amoxicillin showed a significant synergy applying TiO 2 /PAC/UV-vis process. Regarding matrix effect, no influence of the matrix type (ultrapure water or treated wastewater) was observed. Since PAC tends to be deactivated gradually, the TiO 2 /PAC/UV-vis process performance decreases after each cycle in a 15% average. Finally, regeneration via UV-vis light started to be effective after a total of 4 h of regeneration.Keywords TIO 2 -UV/vis photocatalysis . Antibiotic . Powered activated carbon (PAC) * Samuel Moles
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