Photodegradation of ciprofloxacin with coper-modified titanium(IV)-oxide

In recent years, the issue of emerging pollutants, particularly antibiotics, in aquatic ecosystems has garnered significant attention due to their potential environmental and public health impacts. To address this, we synthesized TiO2 modified with Cu at three different molar ratios (0.5%, 1%, and 2%) and applied these photocatalysts to degrade ciprofloxacin in an infusion solution. The photodegradation process was monitored over 240 minutes using UV-Vis spectroscopy. The results indicated that the degradation efficiency of all three photocatalysts was approximately 50%. However, determining the precise degradation efficiency solely through UV-Vis spectroscopy proved challenging. This is because some degradation by-products exhibited absorbance maxima similar to ciprofloxacin, leading to potential inaccuracies in measuring the true extent of degradation. Further analysis, such as high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) or mass spectrometry, would be required to more accurately quantify the degradation products and assess the overall efficiency of the photodegradation process. This study highlights the complexity of using UV-Vis spectroscopy alone for analyzing antibiotic degradation in aquatic environments.