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Updated: Jul 15, 2026

A Complete Method for Evaluating the Performance of Photocatalysts for the Degradation of Antibiotics in Environmental Remediation
Published on: October 6, 2022
Oxidation of sulfamethoxazole and related antimicrobial agents by TiO2 photocatalysis
Lanhua Hu1, Phillip M Flanders, Penney L Miller
1Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Newmark Laboratory, MC-250, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
Abstract:
The widespread detection of pharmaceutically active compounds, including many synthetic antimicrobial agents, in aquatic environments is raising public health concerns. As a result, there is growing interest in the development of innovative technologies to efficiently transform these compounds to non-toxic and pharmaceutically inactive byproducts. This work examines the photocatalytic degradation of sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and related sulfonamide antimicrobial agents in aqueous suspensions of nanophase titanium dioxide (TiO(2)). Experimental results demonstrate that SMX is mineralized by TiO(2) irradiated with ultraviolet-A light (UVA: 324<
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