Electrochemical Degradation of Amoxicillin on a Ti/Ta2O5/Pt-RuO2-IrO22 Electrode

Abstract

This work deals with the degradation of Amoxcillin which is one of the antibiotics commonly used in human and veterinary medicine. For such an investigation, Pt-RuO2-IrO2 (PRI) electrode was used as anode and various parameters such as current density (20 - 100 mA/cm2), supporting electrolyte and chloride were monitored. The results showed that the amoxicillin oxidation reaction is diffusion controlled and its degradation rate increases as the applied current increases. The degradation of amoxicillin on the PRI electrode, in the absence of chloride, is very low with less than 10% of the COD abatement rate. But, in the presence of chloride, the degradation of the Amoxicillin on PRI electrode leads to its mineralization. During electrolysis, chloride was oxidized into chlorine under the form HClO at pH - at pH > 8 that contribute to a significant degradation of the Amoxicillin. The amoxicillin removal rate goes from 0.83% to 73.8% in the absence and in the presence of Cl-, respectively after 10 h of electrolysis. In addition, the degradation kinetic of amoxicillin in HClO4 is 10 times faster than in KClO4 and follows pseudo first-order reaction.