Degradação de fluoxetina através de processos oxidativos avançados

Abstract

Pharmaceuticals are a potential micropollutant in the aquatic environment, whose effects are not completely understood yet. Fluoxetine is an antidepressant medication which has low degradation rates in the nature and a potential for accumulation and harmful effects when released to the environment. Advanced oxidation process arises then as an alternative for the treatment and elimination of this pharmaceutical from the aquatic environment. In this work the degradation of fluoxetine was studied by means of direct photolysis, photoassisted peroxidation and heterogenous photocatalysis with titanium dioxide (TiO2) supported in fiberglass, by means of a 2³ experimental factorial design. Fluoxetine degradation was observed through the proposed procedure and a maximum degradation of 85,68% was observed in the presence of hydrogen peroxide and the catalyst. It was determined that the only individually significant factor for the degradation of the pharmaceutical was the amount of hydrogen peroxide. In addition, it was also noted that, in the presence of the catalyst, the increase in the temperature causes a decrease in the degradation potential of the process. The use of the catalyst supported in fiberglass did not improve the fluoxetine degradation process by means of advanced oxidation process.