| Title |
A Study on the Degradability of Pharmaceuticals during UV Treatment |
| Keywords |
Antibiotic; Emerging contaminant; Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC/MS/MS); Pharmaceutical; Photodegradation; Ultraviolet; UV |
| Abstract |
The photodegradation characteristics of 30 pharmaceuticals were investigated by batch experiments using Ultraviolet (UV) reactor. The investigated pharmaceuticals include antibiotics, analgesics and antiarrhythmic agents etc. Tested water was prepared by simultaneously spiking 30 pharmaceuticals into pure water, and each experiment was conducted using 3 types of UV lamps. As a result, batch experiments showed that reactions of all the investigated pharmaceuticals followed pseudo-first order reaction regardless of the applied UV lamps. Among the pharmaceuticals, Cyclophosphamide, 2-Quinoxaline carboxylic acid and Clarithromycin proved to be the most UV-resistant compounds. Contrarily, Ceftiofur, Diclofenac and Ketoprofen were easily degraded by all the UV lamps. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration hardly changed although the concentration of the pharmaceuticals concentration gradually decreased with time, indicating that the degradation of parent pharmaceuticals may produce their intermediates during UV treatment. |