Session: Aquatic Photochemistry:

Pharmaceuticals have been classified as emerging contaminants of concern due to their frequent detection within large bodies of water in the natural environment. Thus, the objective of this research was to examine how the photodegradation of tylosin tartrate, a macrolide antibiotic, may be improved in water by advanced oxidation processes. Aqueous solutions of 0.15 mM tylosin tartrate underwent UV irradiation in a photochemical reactor (350 nm) and were analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). In this study, the degradation process was maximized by combining tylosin tartrate with an experimentally determined optimal concentration of humic acid (15 mg/L), which readily produced singlet oxygen and increased the overall degradation (k= 0.1004 s^-1) by means of indirect photolysis. Furthermore, the rate constant for the reaction between the target compound and singlet oxygen was found to be 4.83 x 10⁴ M^-1s^-1. While direct photolysis caused negligible degradation (k= 0.0057 s^-1), the addition of 0.4 M hydrogen peroxide (k= 0.016 s^-1) or usage of the photo-Fenton process (k= 0.021 s^-1) also resulted in a greater rate of degradation. The results obtained here offer support for the potential viability of such technologies within wastewater treatment plants.

Hanoz Santoke

California State University, Bakersfield

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