Persulfate activation by modified red mud for the oxidation of antibiotic sulfamethoxazole in water

Alexandra Ioannidi; Paula Oulego; Sergio Collado; Athanasia Petala; Victor Arniella; Zacharias Frontistis; George N Angelopoulos; Mario Diaz; Dionissios Mantzavinos

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.110820

Persulfate activation by modified red mud for the oxidation of antibiotic sulfamethoxazole in water

J Environ Manage. 2020 Sep 15:270:110820. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.110820. Epub 2020 Jun 6.

Authors

Alexandra Ioannidi¹, Paula Oulego², Sergio Collado³, Athanasia Petala⁴, Victor Arniella³, Zacharias Frontistis⁵, George N Angelopoulos⁴, Mario Diaz⁶, Dionissios Mantzavinos⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Patras, Caratheodory 1, University Campus, GR-26504, Patras, Greece.
² Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Oviedo, C/Julián Clavería 8, 33006, Oviedo, Asturias, Spain. Electronic address: oulegopaula@uniovi.es.
³ Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Oviedo, C/Julián Clavería 8, 33006, Oviedo, Asturias, Spain.
⁴ Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Patras, Caratheodory 1, University Campus, GR-26504, Patras, Greece; INVALOR: Research Infrastructure for Waste Valorization and Sustainable Management, Caratheodory 1, University Campus, GR-26504, Patras, Greece.
⁵ Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Western Macedonia, GR-50132, Kozani, Greece.
⁶ Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Oviedo, C/Julián Clavería 8, 33006, Oviedo, Asturias, Spain. Electronic address: mariodiaz@uniovi.es.

PMID: 32721297
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.110820

Abstract

Different pre-conditioning treatments were evaluated in order to stabilize red mud, a waste product from bauxite processing, for obtaining heterogeneous catalysts (named as B1-B3) that can be employed as suitable activators of sodium persulfate (SPS) for the degradation of sulfamethoxazole (SMX), a model antibiotic, in water. The presence of Fe₃O₄ in the composition of the catalysts was found to be a key factor for a suitable activation of SPS, according to the XPS measurements. The oxidation of SMX was successfully fitted to a pseudo-first-order kinetic model (r² > 0.96), obtaining a 68% removal after 180 min when 0.8 mg/L of SMX was oxidized with 2 g/L of SPS and 2 g/L of catalyst B3. The presence of organic and/or inorganic constituents in the water matrix significantly hindered the degradation rate of SMX, the apparent kinetic constants being from 2 to 3 times lower than that determined in ultrapure water test. The use of ultrasound irradiation coupled to the addition of B3 catalyst improved importantly the SMX oxidation in real aqueous matrices, thus attaining values of removal which almost triplicated the ones obtained in absence of ultrasounds.

Keywords: Aluminium industry; Antibiotics; Persulfate oxidation; Red mud; Valorization; Water treatment.

MeSH terms

Anti-Bacterial Agents / analysis
Oxidation-Reduction
Sulfamethoxazole
Water
Water Pollutants, Chemical / analysis*
Water Purification*

Substances

Anti-Bacterial Agents
Water Pollutants, Chemical
Water
Sulfamethoxazole