Abstract
This research focused on determining the effectiveness of non-thermal atmospheric pressure plasma as an alternative to advanced oxidation processes (AOP) for antibiotic removal in solution. For this study, 20 mM (6.988 g/L) solutions of ampicillin were treated with a floating electrode dielectric barrier discharge (FE-DBD) plasma for varying treatment times. The treated solutions were analyzed primarily using mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR). The preliminary product formed was Ampicillin Sulfoxide, however, many more species are formed as plasma treatment time is increased. Ampicillin was completely eliminated after five minutes of air-plasma treatment. The primary mechanism of ampicillin degradation by plasma treatment is investigated in this study.
Highlights
According to a joint study between the USA and England in 2014 [1], 50,000 people die in England and United States because of antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” every year
We demonstrate in this work the decomposition of ampicillin, a beta-lactam type of antibiotic, under non-thermal DBD plasma as an example of antibiotic removal by using DBD
We demonstrate the comprehensive studies on the decomposition products and decomposition mechanism of ampicillin under DBD, which is critical to fully understanding their interaction with bacteria and viruses in the environment before large scale applications are employed
Summary
According to a joint study between the USA and England in 2014 [1], 50,000 people die in England and United States because of antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” every year. Since most antibiotics are used in livestock production [9], and the majority of antibiotics released into the environment come from livestock farms, hospitals, animal clinics, and pharmaceutical companies, a more practical and cost-effective solution is to remove or decompose antibiotics from their wastewater before release. A nanosecond pulsed power supply is used to prevent the buildup of charge on the dielectric surface and allows for a more uniform discharge for an even plasma treatment [42] This discharge generates a number of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Penicillin leads the way in the number of prescriptions and overall usage and their degradation products have been well studied [46,47,48] For this reason, ampicillin has been selected as the molecule of choice to study the degradation from FE-DBD plasma treatment. We demonstrate the comprehensive studies on the decomposition products and decomposition mechanism of ampicillin under DBD, which is critical to fully understanding their interaction with bacteria and viruses in the environment before large scale applications are employed
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