Characterization of transformation products of selected fluoroquinolone antimicrobials subjected to degradation in anaerobic reactors

Abstract

Wastewater contamination with pharmaceutical drugs is of remarkable importance. Among other drugs, antimicrobials cause concern due to their hole in bacterial resistance. Effluents from industries, residential districts, hospitals and animal farms are the main sources of contamination by antimicrobials. Moreover, conventional wastewater treatments have shown low efficiency in the removal of these xenobiotics, while alternative options for that treatment have few studies and their consequences are not clearly evaluated. Still regarding environmental concerns, the Green Chemistry has been driving modernization of analytical strategies. In the scope of pharmaceutical drugs analysis in complex matrices, invaluable importance is conferred to the development and application of miniaturized sample preparation and chromatographic separation. Currently, several strategies of solid phase or liquid phase microextraction can be developed for wastewater samples, and capillary liquid chromatography with fast and very efficient columns are greatly recommended by the Green Analytical Chemistry. Thus, the aims of this project are the characterization of degradation products of fluoroquinolone antimicrobials using fixed-bed biological reactor; the development of modern strategies for the sample preparation of wastewaters containing antimicrobials and subjected to degradation; and the analysis of these compounds to the trace level using liquid chromatography and different techniques of mass spectrometry. (AU)