Sunlight Assisted Photocatalytic Degradation of Ciprofloxacin in Water Using Fe Doped ZnO Nanoparticles for Potential Public Health Applications

Antibiotic residues in aquatic environment have the possibility to induce resistance in environmental bacteria, which ultimately might get transferred to pathogens making treatment of diseases difficultand poses a serious threat to public health. If antibiotic residues in the environment can be eliminated or reduced, it has the possibility to contribute antibiotic resistance. Towards this objective, water containing ciprofloxacin was treated with sunlight assisted photocatalysis using Fe doped ZnOnanoparticles for assessing the degradation potential of this system.Parameters like pH, temperature, catalytic dosage were assessed for the optimum performance of the system. To evaluate degradation of ciprofloxacin,both spectrophotometricas well as microbiological (loss of antibiotic activity)methods were employed. 100 mg/L Fe doped ZnO nanoparticle catalyst and sunlight intensity of 120,000–135,000 lux system gave optimum performance at pH 9 at 30 °C and 40 °C. At these conditions spectrophotometric analysis showed complete degradation of ciprofloxacin (10mg/L) by 210 min. Microbiological studies showed loss of antibacterial activity of the photocatalytically treated ciprofloxacin containingwater against Staphylococcus aureus (108 CFU) in 60 min and for Escherichia coli (108 CFU) in 75 min. Thedeveloped system, thus possess a potential for treatment of antibiotic contaminated waters for eliminating/reducing antibiotic residues from environment.