Researchers increase efficiency of antibiotics degradation in water

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A recent study published in the journal Nanoscale revealed that a newly developed morphology-tunable nanoscale catalyst dramatically increases the efficiency of antibiotic degradation in aquatic environments.

Given that human beings and animals are not able to completely absorb antibiotics, a large amount of antibiotics are discharged into the environment as metabolites or even in the original state. As such, pathogenic microbes would develop resistance to antibiotics.

As a typical antibiotic, tetracycline (TC) is hard to be totally absorbed by intestines and stomach. About 75 percent of the dosage is excreted from the body, posing a great threat to the ecological environment.

The Fenton system is one of the most popular methods for eliminating antibiotics in water, but the existing Fenton system is limited in practical applications as the regular Fenton reaction needs to function under strong acid conditions.

Researchers from Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, the Chinese Academy of Sciences have designed a new kind of nanoscale catalyst that could be applied in the Fenton system.

According to the study, 91.75 percent of TC was degraded in 60 minutes for the initial TC concentration of 400 μmol/L. Further analysis also confirmed that TC could be degraded to nontoxic by-products and finally mineralized to carbon dioxide and water.

The catalyst proves effective in improving the Fenton system's efficiency for the degradation of the antibiotic tetracycline. It also broadened the pH application range of the Fenton system.

(With input from Xinhua)