Modeling of antibiotic degradation in sonophotocatalytic process, increasing biodegradability and process optimization by response surface methodology (RSM)

The aim of this study was to study the degradation of β -lactam antibiotics in aqueous solutions by ultrasonic along with UV/immobilized ZnO catalyst. The variables such as contact time, antibiotic concentration, and ZnO dose were studied according to the response surface methodology. In the optimum condition, the removal efficiency of 94.2% for PCG and 84.2% for CFX was obtained. The BOD 5 /COD ratio in the optimum condition increased from 0 to about 0.4. The quadratic and linear model was well fitted with test results ( R 2 = 0.871–0.996). The results showed that sonophotocatalytic process led to the effective degradation of the PCG and CFX and their enhanced biodegradability.