Electrochemical degradation of the antibiotic metronidazole in aqueous solution by the Ti/SnO₂–Sb–Ce anode

Abstract

Metronidazole (MNZ) is an antibiotic pollutant with a high occurrence in the ambient medium. In this study, the anode material Ti/SnO2-Sb-Ce prepared in the lab was employed to investigate the feasibility of the electrochemical process to treat antibiotic in wastewater. The result showed that metronidazole could be effectively removed using Ti/SnO2-Sb-Ce. The degradation efficiency of 88% was obtained under the current density 1.6 mA cm(-2), pH = 5.6 (not adjusted), electrolyte (Na2SO4) concentration of 0.2 M for electrolysis 2 h. The removal percentage was higher by 17% compared with the control when the bare Ti was applied. Meanwhile, the energy consumption on Ti/SnO2-Sb-Ce was about one-seventh of that on Ti. The characterization of the material was conducted by the thermal field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS) and cyclic voltammetry (CV). The Ti/SnO2-Sb-Ce anode displayed compact, multi-porous morphology and good redox reversibility. The influencing factors such as current density, pH, concentration of Na2SO4, initial MNZ concentration were studied to obtain main factors and optimum conditions. In addition, a preliminary study on the mechanism of the electro-oxidation was carried out. The results demonstrate that chemisorbed oxygen has a dominant role in MNZ removal.

Facile synthesis and high activity of novel BiVO4/FeVO4 heterojunction photocatalyst for degradation of metronidazole

“…Metronidazole (MNZ, 2-methyl-5-nitroimidazole-1-ethanol) is a kind of nitroimidazole antibiotic, which is not only commonly used to treat infections caused by anaerobic bacteria and various protozoans, but is also added to fish and poultry feed to promote weight production [35][36][37][38][39]. Continuously increasing consumption and emission (incomplete absorption and metabolism) of metronidazole drugs will lead to its accumulation in organisms and environment.…”

Sulfamethazine removal by means of a combined process coupling an oxidation pretreatment and activated sludge culture – preliminary results

“…A variety of technologies have been developed to effectively remove this emerging pollutant and especially antibiotics, such as sorption on goethite [4], biological methods [5] photolysis [3,6,7] photo-catalysis with TiO2 and ZnO as catalysts [1,8,9], anodic oxidation [10], photo-Fenton [2,11], Electro-Fenton [12] and photoelectro-Fenton processes [13] as well as other coupled processes [14][15][16]. Among these technologies, physical methods consist only in a transfer of the target compounds from water to a solid phase without any degradation.…”

Degradation of Metronidazole from Aqueous Environment Using Hydrothermally Synthesized ZnO, N-Doped ZnO, and ZnO/AC Nanoparticles

“…Several approaches, including ultraviolet (UV) fltration [20], electrochemical degradation process [21], catalytic ozonation process [22], Sono−Fenton process [23], and photocatalytic degradation under UV and visible radiation with diferent composites, were reported to reduce the amount of MNZ present in drinkable and waste water from industries.…”