Semiconductor sensitized photodegradation of antibiotic tetracycline in water using heterogeneous nanoparticles
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 (TETRA). 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.