ANTIBIOTIC REMOVAL EFFICIENCY OF Fe-alginate CATALYST IN PHOTO-FENTON SYSTEM

Abstract

Antibiotics derived from suiphonamide groups are not easy to remove from water sources with great ease and efficiency by available methods of water treatment because of their nonbiodegradable nature. Their multi-ringed stable structure provides them inertness towards any digestion method. So sulpharnethoxazole-a suiphonamide derivative obtained from a drug named G-KELFTh manufactured by Shrinivas laboratories Pvt. Ltd. Gujarat, mainly used along with pyrimethimine in malarial treatment is degraded in photo-Fenton apparatus. It involves an advanced oxidation process (AOP), which uses catalytic reaction produced when hydrogen peroxide is irradiated with UV light in presence of iron species. Solubility of iron species is limited at neutral pH and to avoid acidif'ing the whole effluent, a biopolymer based catalyst is formed involving Fe3 ions adsorption on surface of alginate structure. It gives rise to a bead form catalyst, synthesized using alginate as surface biopolymer. Displacement reaction between Ferric-chloride and Na-alginate allows one Fe3 ion to crosslink with three alginate molecules results in formation of bead shaped catalyst to be used in photo-Fenton system. Morphological characterization of Fe-alginate under Scanning electron microscope (accelerating voltage = 10 KV) describes its egg box like structure. FTIR analysis to determine the chemical structure stability does not show much change on dehydration of fresh hydrated catalyst. On using both fonTns of catalyst in photo-Fenton system, best possible amount of catalyst can be determined which in turn further can provide the minimum required time of reaction for maximum digestion of antibiotic. Dehydrated form of catalyst shows little lesser digestion efficiency in given time interval while the saturation limit of this form is higher than hydrated form with a noticeable difference