Review on the visible light photocatalysis for the decomposition of ciprofloxacin, norfloxacin, tetracyclines, and sulfonamides antibiotics in wastewater

Abstract

Antibiotics are chemical compounds that are used to kill or prevent bacterial growth. They are used in different fields, such as the medical field, agriculture, and veterinary. Antibiotics end up in wastewater, which causes the threat of developing antibacterial resistance; therefore, antibiotics must be eliminated from wastewater. Different conventional elimination methods are limited due to their high cost and effort, or incomplete elimination. Semiconductor-assisted photocatalysis arises as an effective elimination method for different organic wastes including antibiotics. A variety of semiconducting materials were tested to eliminate antibiotics from wastewater; nevertheless, research is still ongoing due to some limitations. This review summarizes the recent studies regarding semiconducting material modifications for antibiotic degradation using visible light irradiation.