Enhancing Levofloxacin Degradation in Contaminated Water: Catalytic Performance of Pegmatite in a Sodium Percarbonate/Ultrasound System

Despite ongoing research into technologies for the removal of antibiotics from contaminated water, there is a necessity to provide a cost-effective water treatment solution. In this study, the activation of sodium percarbonate (SPC) by pegmatite soils ultrasonicated (US) has been used to degrade fluoroquinolone antibiotics, such as levofloxacin (LVFX), in contaminated water. The soil has been characterized before application using instruments such as XRF, SEM-EDX, and XRD, where, according to the XRF and XRD analyses, the pegmatite contained mainly FeIII (59.8 g.kg−1) and iron oxide (goethite). After characterization, the material was used for water treatment application, where the removal efficiency of LVFX using the SPC/US/Pegmatite system under the optimal conditions (i.e., [LVFX] = 60 µmol L−1, [Pegmatite] = 0.75 g. L−1, [SPC] = 60 µmol L−1) was 95% with 57% mineralization, while the degradation efficiency was 90.7%. Scavengers’ experiments showed the involvement of OH•, O2•−, and CO3•− in the degradation of LVFX, with the strongest implication of OH• (i.e., 57.33%) in the process. The system’s reusability and catalytic capability have been determined to be satisfactory, through water washing and drying operations used before reuse in a fresh oxidation cycle. This cost-effective remediation method has shown to be a promising approach to removing antibiotics from contaminated water.