Effective photocatalytic performance of PANI, PPy, and PTh in the removal of Ciprofloxacin and Pefloxacin: a comparative study

초록

The comparative drug removal study under sunlight irradiation of polyaniline (PANI), polypyrrole (PPy), and polythiophene (PTh) is presented in this report, with a focus on the removal of antibiotics namely Ciprofloxacin and Pefloxacin. Using a UV-visible spectrophotometer, the removal efficiency of Ciprofloxacin and Pefloxacin was investigated for PANI, PPy, and PTh under identical conditions. The structural investigation of PANI, PPy, and PTh was conducted using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) measurements. After 660 min of sunlight irradiation, PANI demonstrated the highest Ciprofloxacin removal 82 %. PPy followed closely with 75 % removal, while PTh exhibited a removal of 70 %. Following the same 660 min sunlight irradiation period, PANI exhibited the 80 % removal capability for Pefloxacin, exceeding PPy's 74 % and PTh's 69 % removal efficiencies. For both antibiotics, PANI revealed the highest photocatalytic enactment compared to PPy and PTh. Kinetic analysis revealed that PANI has higher rate constant for the degradation of 5 ppm Ciprofloxacin while a better value of rate constant was identified for PPy for the photodegradation of 5 ppm Pefloxacin. It has been demonstrated that PANI, PPy, and PTh have shown encouraging potential as photocatalysts for the elimination of antibiotic pollutants from wastewater.

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