Monitoring of an Antituberculosis Drug Degradation under UV Radiation

Despite the fact that the detection of pharmaceutical products in the various water systems is a subject, which does not date from today, this problem, remains far from being resolved, several recent studies still raise the problem of detecting drug residues in water environment. This study aims to apply photocatalysis process using ZnO, under UV artificial radiations in the optic to treat wastewater polluted by one of the widely anti-tuberculosis (AT) (rifampicin) prescribed in medicine. Approximately 100% of the rifampicin degradation is obtained after 150 min irradiation exposition while using a very small amount of semi-conductor (0.05 g/L). The mineralization is monitored by the total organic carbon (TOC) and the chemical oxygen demand (COD) analysis found respectively 45 and 70%. The calculation of the factor β explains that the rifampicin mineralization process is preceded by the formation of intermediate photoproducts.