摘要
The study examined the photodegradative efficiency of ZnO and TiO2 in degradation of antibiotics in aqueous matrices. Among several types of antibiotics, four antibiotics were chosen to feature the major classes of these compounds： amoxicillin, erythromycin, streptomycin and ciprofloxacin. Degradation of antibiotic solutions was carried out mainly under UV-light irradiation in a set time with the presence of small quantity of zinc oxide or titanium dioxide. Solutions were analyzed with HPLC chromatography and degradation percentages were calculated from ratio between pick area associated to no degraded drug solution and degraded drug solution＇s pick area. Meanwhile, toxicity of antibiotics and degrading compounds were investigated using a biosensor system, consisting of Clark＇s electrode associated with a portion of agar medium culture containing Saccharomyces Cerevisiae yeast cells. This way, it was possible to define the oxygen that was consumed by yeast cells. Toxicity associated to antibiotics and degrading products are related to decrease of oxygen concentration in solution. It is clear that zinc oxide is slower than titanium dioxide to degrade antibiotics, but zinc oxide shows better photodegradation efficiency than titanium dioxide in spite of its small specific superficial area.
