A novel approach to measure the untraceable amount of cetirizine and fexofenadine in drinking water

Pharmaceutical residues in the drinking water have become a major challenge of the modern urban life because bioaccumulation of these residues in human bodies has been considered the major cause of trending disorders such as infertility, drug resistance, hormonal imbalance etc. Although proctocols have been implemented to detect and deliminate these residues to purify the drinking water but inspite of huge efforts, the untraceable amount of these substances remains intact. Considering the singnificance of detection of pharmaceutical residues in drinking water, the current study was perform to develop a novel approach to measure the untraceable amount of Cetirizine and Fexofenadine by using an in-lab developed nanosheets of graphene oxide to act as suitable adsorbents of compounds of the antihistamine family. These graphene nanosheets were characterized following the adsorption kinetics, contact time, temperature, pH, desorption rate, volume effect on adsorption and desorption concentration. FT-IR and XRD methods were also used to detect the nanoparticles. It was observed that the best pH for Cetirizine and Fexofenadine adsorptionis 3 and 6, respectively by using methanol as an optimal solvent. The quadratic equation of both drugs paints a clearer picture of absorption. The validation test of the sample condensation by graphene oxide adsorbent exhibited that using the synthesized adsorbent, the analysis power of these drugs in water samples can be enhanced from mg/L units to μg/L, which helps analyze very small amounts of these compounds in aquatic environments. On the other hand, the maximum adsorptioncapacity of 28.2 and 26.42 mg/g for Cetirizine and Fexofenadine, respectively, indicates the high adsorptioncapacity of this substance to treat pollution of wastewater discharged by pharmaceutical factories. [Display omitted]