Enhanced Atenolol oxidation by ferrites photoanodes grown on ceramic SnO2-Sb2O3 anodes

Abstract

The increase in the consumption of pharmaceutical compounds has caused the increment of their presence in different body waters. β-blockers are one of the most dangerous even at low concentrations (ng L−1). Anodic oxidation with a boron-doped diamond (BDD) anode presents good results to remove these compounds. However, since this anode is expensive, some cheaper materials are under study. In this work, Sb-doped SnO2 ceramic anodes (BCE) coated with Zn or Cd ferrites, in order to provide photocatalytic properties, have been applied to the degradation of the Atenolol (ATL) β-blocker. Increasing the applied current increased ATL degradation and mineralization but caused a decrease in mineralization current efficiency (MCE) and an increase in energy consumption (ETOC). Additionally, light irradiation enhanced the ATL mineralization rate between 10% and 20% for both ferrites, although this increase was higher for the cadmium ferrite one. Finally, when the ferrites were compared with BDD and BCE anodes, the oxidizing power of the different anodic materials can be ordered as follows BDD> Cd-Fe> Zn-Fe> BCE. Therefore, both ferrites improved the BCE performance but only the cadmium one appeared as an alternative to the BDD, especially for MCE and ETOC, reaching values of 15% and 0.5 kWh gTOC−1, respectively.