Abstract
Oxytetracycline (OTC) is a tetracycline antibiotic that is widely used in the drug therapy and livestock industry and may threaten human health and ecosystems when released into the environment. In this study, a catalyst was prepared from hand-warmer waste using a simple magnetic separation method. The prepared hand-warmer waste catalyst (HWWC) was used as a persulfate (PS) activator for OTC removal. Characterization methods, such as X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy–energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry, were used to investigate the crystal structure, surface morphology, and weight ratios of the elements in the HWWC. The degradation efficiency of OTC in the presence of the catalyst and PS was studied, and the radical generation mechanism of the catalyst was investigated. The removal ratio of OTC by PS activation was greater than 99% for a reaction time of 24 min at a pH of 6. The effects of the HWWC dosage, PS concentration, and solution pH on OTC degradation were also investigated. The reuse test revealed that HWWC can be reused for eight cycles with great stability. These results suggest that PS activation using hand-warmer waste can be an efficient strategy for the degradation of antibiotics.
Highlights
The amount of antibiotics released into the environment is increasing owing to the lack of appropriate disposal methods and strict control measures, which threaten human health and the ecosystem [1,2]
hand-warmer waste catalyst (HWWC) was successfully prepared by a simple magnetic separation method
X-ray diffraction (XRD) and SEM-EDS results revealed that the HWWC consisted of a mixture of γ-Fe2O3 and and SEM-EDS results revealed that the HWWC consisted of a mixture of γ-Fe2 O3 and α-Fe2O3
Summary
The amount of antibiotics released into the environment is increasing owing to the lack of appropriate disposal methods and strict control measures, which threaten human health and the ecosystem [1,2]. Oxytetracycline (OTC), an antibiotic, is widely used as an antimicrobial agent and growth factor in drug therapy and the livestock industry [3,4]. 70% of OTC leaves organisms via urine and feces without undergoing metabolism because of its poor absorption [5]. OTC has been detected in various environments, such as aquatic systems, soil, and sediments [6,7,8]. Several studies have reported that OTC has been detected in river water [9] and in the influent and effluent of a wastewater treatment plant [10,11,12,13]. It is difficult to degrade the released OTC in water using conventional wastewater treatment processes [14]
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