Optimized Photocatalytic Degradation of Ciprofloxacin Using Nano SnO2 Thin Films: Kinetic Studies and Operational Parameters

Abstract

Pharmaceuticals belong to the biggest groups of organic pollutants discharged to wastewater from pharmaceutical manufacturing and healthcare institutions. Realization of effective methods for degradation of these pollutants is, therefore, very important for environmental protection. Pharmaceutical medication waste Ciprofloxacin, having several uses, was degraded using a thin film of nano SnO₂ photocatalyst supported in the polymer. The best photocatalyst among the studied semiconductors decoloured ciprofloxacin in this work. Among the tested semiconductors, SnO₂ thin film revealed to be the best photocatalyst for Ciprofloxacin degradation. It worked better in comparison with other taken semiconductors. The operational parameters have been explored for optimizing the conditions for the complete removal of pharmaceutical pollutants from aqueous solutions. Various factors affect the kinetics of Ciprofloxacin degradation. Factors that may influence the degradation efficiency include the amount of radiation used, the factors to consider include the starting concentration of pollutants, The factors that influence the solution's pH include the presence of electron acceptors like hydrogen peroxide, as well as the length and intensity of radiation. In this study, kinetic studies of the photocatalytic degradation of ciprofloxacin were performed. A commonly prevalent method to find out the reaction kinetics was followed to obtain the apparent rate constant of the reaction represented as k_app. This research proved that SnO₂ is the most efficient photocatalyst for Ciprofloxacin degradation among the tested materials, reaching a degradation rate of 89% at its optimum. The SnO₂ photocatalyst was utilized for five consecutive batches, yielding consistent and acceptable results, demonstrating its reusability over four repetitions. The degradation of this antibiotic drug is as follows: Percent degradation increased by increasing the irradiation time. This clearly indicates that the efficiency decreases with increasing the initial concentration of the drug. Among the studied pH range, 3 was found to be the optimum pH of the solution for Ciprofloxacin. The inclusion of a 0.01M concentration of H₂O₂ in the Ciprofloxacin solution exhibited the most significant degradation efficacy. The rate constant (k_app) for The SnO₂ thin film was observed to exhibit a photocatalytic degradation rate of 0.0082 min-1 for the Ciprofloxacin compound at a concentration of 1×10^-5 M.