Detection methods for antibiotics in wastewater: a review

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Analytical Chemistry
• Biotechnology

Background:

• Antibiotics are increasingly detected in industrial and aquaculture wastewater, posing environmental and health risks.
• Overuse and incomplete metabolism of antibiotics lead to environmental contamination.
• Effective detection of antibiotics in wastewater is vital for environmental protection and public health.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review recent (2020-present) enrichment and detection methods for antibiotics in wastewater.
• To analyze the advantages and limitations of current antibiotic detection techniques.
• To provide insights into future research directions for improved antibiotic monitoring.

Main Methods:

• Summary of common antibiotic detection methods: immunoassay, instrumental analysis, and sensors.
• Discussion of various sensor types, including electrochemical, optical, biosensors, photoelectrochemical, and surface plasmon resonance sensors.
• Review of pretreatment steps for antibiotic analysis in wastewater.

Main Results:

• Immunoassays can detect low antibiotic concentrations but are susceptible to external interferences.
• Instrumental analysis offers rapid detection but suffers from poor repeatability, high cost, and operational complexity.
• Sensors show promise with fast, accurate, and sensitive detection, but face challenges in reproducibility and stability.

Conclusions:

• No single current method comprehensively integrates all desired advantages for antibiotic detection in wastewater.
• Further research is needed to overcome the limitations of existing sensor technologies.
• Developing robust and stable sensor platforms is a key future direction for effective antibiotic monitoring.