Photodegradation of Berberine Hydrochloride Under Simulated Sunlight Irradiation
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Journal of Applied Spectroscopy, Vol. 87, No. 5, November, 2020 (Russian Original Vol. 87, No. 5, September–October, 2020)
PHOTODEGRADATION OF BERBERINE HYDROCHLORIDE UNDER SIMULATED SUNLIGHT IRRADIATION Chengbin Xu,a Jiajia He,a Ying Wang,a Zien Xu,a Xiping Ma,a* and Xuelian Mengb*
UDC 615.33
Berberine hydrochloride (BH) is a frequently detected antibiotic in environmental waters. The objective of this study was to investigate the photodegradation of the problematic antibiotic in pure water under simulated sunlight (290–800 nm) using a photodegradation chamber. The effects of irradiation time, pH, and the presence of the matrix (nitrate, humic acid, copper, and hydrogen peroxide) were investigated in this study. The results showed that the BH degradation follows pseudo-first-order kinetics, with the degradation of BH decreasing slightly with increasing irradiation time. The rate of BH photolysis was more efficient in the near-neutral condition than in alkaline or acidic solutions and increased in the presence of nitrate and copper. Hydrogen peroxide and humic acid accelerated or inhibited degradation of BH depending on their concentration. The rapid photodegradation of BH under simulated sunlight suggested that photolytic disinfection could also be effective for degradation of the target antibiotics in water. Keywords: berberine hydrochloride, photodegradation, simulated solar radiation, antibiotics. Introduction. The presence of antibiotics in environmental water is of particular ecological concern [1–6]. Antibiotics are considered to be emergent pollutants because they are bioactive, polar, and persistent, which may cause adverse effects on aquatic life and humans [7, 8]. Moreover, antibiotics and their transformation products may induce the development of bacterial resistance [9]. Unfortunately, antibiotics are not completely removed by conventional processes such as sewage treatment, hydrolysis, biodegradation, and sorption [10]. Large amounts of antibiotics are constantly discharged into the environment from many sources including household sewer system, agricultural runoffs, and so on [11–15]. Another important pathway of antibiotics into the environment is the antibiotic pharmaceutical industry. Antibiotics were detected at concentrations between 0.1 and 90.2 μg/L of antibiotics in the pharmaceutical wastewaters [16, 17]. It is reported that approximately half of the pharmaceutical wastewaters in the world were discharged without specific treatment [18]. Hence, it is necessary to investigate a new and effective water treatment system to remove antibiotics from wastewater. Berberine hydrochloride (BH), a quaternary ammonium chloride, is a broad-spectrum antibiotic widely used in medicine. However, BH is poisonous for microorganisms and difficult to decompose [19]. It has been demonstrated that BH cannot be eliminated by conventional biological water treatment such as activated sludge treatment [20]. In recent years, the photodegradation of antibiotics was studied using different light sources including UV
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