Photocatalytic degradation of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin in the aqueous solution using Mn/Co oxide photocatalyst

Active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), despite their beneficial effects on human or animal health, have emerged as an environmental unwanted material due to their excessive use and subsequent release into the aquatic environment causing deleterious effects in organisms. Effective strategies for the removal of APIs are therefore the need of the day as the existing strategies are not efficient. The application of photochemical treatments, namely heterogeneous photocatalysis for the removal of the APIs in water is one of the effective methods. In this respect, we have prepared manganese oxide/cobalt oxide photocatalyst which has emerged as effective treatment methodology for pharmaceutical removal. The photocatalyst was prepared though sol–gel method and then characterized using field emission scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Brunner–Emmitt–Teller analysis, thermogravimetric analysis and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The photocatalyst was used to degrade the antibiotic (ciprofloxacin). Both photolysis of antibiotic without any catalyst under sun light and photocatalysis in the presence of catalyst were studied and compared. Catalysis was performed under different experimental conditions such as pH, antibiotic concentration, and catalyst dosage and were optimized. The photocatalysis ( k = 7.9 × 10 −2 min −1 ) was found to greater than the photolysis ( k = 3.8 × 10 −3 min −1 ) indicating the catalytic activity of the prepared photocatalyst.