Abstract

Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) has been extensively consumed due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Therefore, it is increasingly found in different water matrices. For this reason, the concentration of HCQ in water should be monitored and the treatment of contaminated water matrices with HCQ is a key issue to overcome immediately. Thus, in this study, the development of technologies and smart water solutions to reach the Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG6) is the main objective. To do that, the integration of electrochemical technologies for their environmental application on HCQ detection, quantification and degradation was performed. Firstly, an electrochemical cork-graphite sensor was prepared to identify/quantify HCQ in river water matrices by differential pulse voltammetric (DPV) method. Subsequently, an HCQ-polluted river water sample was electrochemically treated with BDD electrode by applying 15, 30 and 45 mA cm−2. The HCQ decay and organic matter removal was monitored by DPV with composite sensor and chemical oxygen demand (COD) measurements, respectively. Results clearly confirmed that, on the one hand, the cork-graphite sensor exhibited good current response to quantify of HCQ in the river water matrix, with limit of detection and quantification of 1.46 mg L−1 (≈3.36 µM) and 4.42 mg L−1 (≈10.19 µM), respectively. On the other hand, the electrochemical oxidation (EO) efficiently removed HCQ from real river water sample using BDD electrodes. Complete HCQ removal was achieved at all applied current densities; whereas in terms of COD, significant removals (68%, 71% and 84% at 15, 30 and 45 mA cm−2, respectively) were achieved. Based on the achieved results, the offline integration of electrochemical SDG6 technologies in order to monitor and remove HCQ is an efficient and effective strategy.

Highlights

  • On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic

  • An HCQ-polluted river water sample was electrochemically treated with boron doped diamond (BDD) electrode by applying 15, 30 and 45 mA cm−2

  • The HCQ decay and organic matter removal was monitored by differential pulse voltammetric (DPV) with composite sensor and chemical oxygen demand (COD) measurements, respectively

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Summary

Introduction

On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic. This infectious disease is caused by a new strain of CoV, a mutation (ID-19) of its two previous forms and is called SARS-CoV-2 or CoV-19 [1]. The high risk of water contamination due to their large production and utilization is a key issue to overcome urgently. Sometimes these drugs are not completely metabolized by the body, and their active forms or metabolites can be eliminated through feces and urine [6]. Some limitations are found in their elimination from water treatment plants which mostly rely on conventional treatment systems in industrialized countries, but it is different in developing nations since they are under different pressures where the pollutants are not efficiently treated or have limitations in the removal of these compounds, provoking environmental and health risks [7,8,9,10,11]

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