Abstract
Analgesics and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as paracetamol, diclofenac, and ibuprofen are frequently encountered in surface and ground water, thereby posing a significant risk to aquatic ecosystems. Our study reports the catalytic performances of nanosystems TiO2-MexOy (Me = Ce, Sn) prepared by the sol-gel method and deposited onto glass slides by a dip-coating approach in the removal of paracetamol from aqueous solutions by catalytic ozonation. The effect of catalyst type and operation parameters on oxidation efficiency was assessed. In addition to improving this process, the present work simplifies it by avoiding the difficult step of catalyst separation. It was found that the thin films were capable of removing all pollutants from target compounds to the oxidation products.
Highlights
Introduction iationsWater supplies are under a constant threat due to pollution resulting from numerous and complex anthropic activities
We report for the first time the removal of paracetamol from aqueous solutions using thin film catalysts based on TiO2 -Mex Oy nanosystems deposited on glass plates and immersed into a semi-batch reactor
The XRD pattern for as-prepared (Ti-Ce) shows an additional peak compared with TiO2 films at around 30.3◦, which is attributed to the Ce2 O3 (101) plane according to pdf file 00-023-1048 from the International Centre of Diffraction Data 2019 [54]
Summary
Water supplies are under a constant threat due to pollution resulting from numerous and complex anthropic activities. A special situation is represented by pharmaceuticals which escape traditional water treatment methods and reach the water bodies from multiple and almost uncontrollable sources [1,2,3,4]: effluents from pharmaceutical industries and hospitals, household disposal, the excretion of non-metabolized/metabolized drugs after human/animal consumption, aquaculture, sludge from water treatment facilities used as fertilizer and leaching drugs in ground water, etc. The fraction of medicines that remain unchanged and leave patients’ bodies ranges between 25% and 75%. Considering the large number of pharmaceuticals used worldwide, this results in a significant environmental burden which is growing due to an increase in world population.
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