An overview on ultraviolet persulfate based advances oxidation process for removal of antibiotics from aqueous solutions: a systematic review

Pollution of water resources with pharmaceuticals along with the failure of conventional water treatment methods to remove resistant pollutants increased the attention to advanced water treatment techniques. The present study reviewed the literature of ultraviolet persulfate based advanced oxidation process (AOP) for the removal of antibiotics. Results showed that the removal of antibiotics in UV/PS systems was pH dependent and the sulfate radicals were dominant in the neutral situation. Also, complete degradation of Ciprofloxacin (CIP) occurred at pH 7 in 60-min reaction time at the peroxymonosulfate [PMS]/[CIP] molar ratio of 20 in wastewater medium. Analyzing the antibiotic degradation pathway in UV/PS system suggested that regions with the highest electron density values were most susceptible to react with reactive oxygen species from which decomposition began. Finally, based on the literature review, the removal of antibiotics needs to be considered by UV/PS processes in the real aqueous medium. It is also necessary to study the scavenging effect of mineral scavengers, as well as the study of organic scavengers can provide significant information in this area. Both toxicity test and determining the bacterial resistance of new degradation compounds can be useful to clarify the degradation pathway.