1165748 - Study on Photodegradation of Norfloxacin in Water by Using Iron Cerium Oxide Aerogel

In recent years, the invention and improvement of antibiotic drugs have led to drug abuse. Furthermore, the excess drugs will be discharged into the sanitary sewer or sewage system with the human body because of the different absorption capacity of individuals. They will cause a series of pollution hazards to the environment when these pollutants are not properly treated. In order to effectively remove the pollution caused by the discharge of personal protective drugs (PPCPs) into water bodies, various antibiotic pollutant treatment technologies can be divided into three categories, including adsorption method, biological treatment method and advanced oxidation technology. Among which the biological treatment method takes the longest time. Moreover, the biological treatment method must be combined with other oxidation technologies to effectively remove antibiotic pollutants. The adsorption method is not suitable because the adsorption treatment cost is high and it is not easy to recover and regenerate. At present, the advanced oxidation technology has high pollutant removal efficiency and wide removal range. Therefore, it has attracted high attention and selected for antibiotic treatment in this study.

Three-dimensional aerogels were synthesized from methylcellulose to effectively deal with the environmental pollution caused by antibiotics in water. After the aldehyde functional group of citric acid was combined with the carboxylic acid group on the surface of methylcellulose, the aerogels with stable three-dimensional structure could be produced through high-strength intermolecular adhesion and bonding force. Through a large number of intermolecular connections to achieve hydrophobic properties, and the aerogels were doped with different contents of Fe-CeO2 to provide an effective active region for the degradation of antibiotics and other pollutants.
In order to understand the iron content effect on the performance of aerogels, 4% Fe-CeO2 aerogel was used in the degradation of norfloxacin (NF) experiment. It was known that the removal efficiency is 54% when the dosage was 1.0 g L-1 and the concentration of norfloxacin was 2 ppm. In addition, the removal efficiency is 60% after adding 0.1 mg/L Sodium persulfate. In the future, different oxidants, MOF and other catalysts will be added to increase their oxidation capacity and treatment efficiency. Furthermore, the electric hole generated by the catalyst will provide additional oxidation capacity to oxidize pollutants into other substances.