Mineralization of ciprofloxacin in synthetic urine by solar photoelectron-Fenton process using a flow plant with a Pt/air-diffusion and/or BDD/air diffusion cell coupled with a compound parabolic collector

Abstract

The goal of this project is to promote de mineralization of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin in a solar flow plant by Anodic Oxidation, Electro-Fenton, Photoelectro-Fenton and solar photoelectro-Fenton processes. Gas diffusion electrodes based on W@Au/C, a promising material for the H2O2 electrogeneration, will be prepared by the chemical reduction method and used as cathode. The anode will be a Pt sheet of 99.99% purity from SEMPSA. A variant of an anodic oxidation will be promoted with electrogenerated H2O2 (AO-H2O2) in which a W@Au/Carbon-polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) O2-diffusion cathode supplies continuously hydrogen peroxide to the contaminated solution contained in a flow plant, from the two-electron reduction of O2 gas. Synthetic urine will be employed as electrolyte because of its easy preparation and no risk of contamination of the system, laboratory and analyst, aiming to evaluate the system performance in analysis of biological fluids. Subsequently, the degradation efficiency will be evaluated by the initial and final concentrations of organic pollutants by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and Total Organic Carbon (TOC). The inorganic ions lost during the mineralization process will be quantified by ion chromatography and a plausible reaction sequence for the degradation of ciprofloxacin will be proposed, according to the products formed to propose a general reaction pathway for ciprofloxacin mineralization. (AU)