Investigation of photocatalytic degradation of clindamycin antibiotic by using nano-ZnO catalysts

The photocatalytic degradation of clindamycin (CLM) was studied by a batch reactor using UV irradiation and ZnO catalyst. The effects of several parameters such as pH, catalyst loading, light intensity and irradiation time were evaluated in the removal process. The results showed that the degradation of CLM was effective in alkaline conditions. The optimum catalyst loading in an aqueous solution containing 25 mM of CLM and UV lamp of 50 W was observed at 3.0 g/L of catalyst loading. The process followed pseudo-first order kinetics, and the apparent rate constant (k) decreased with increasing the initial concentration of CLM. The photocatalytic process had higher removal efficiency in synthetic than actual wastewater in optimum conditions.