Effective electrocatalytic elimination of chloramphenicol: mechanism, degradation pathway, and toxicity assessment

Oxidative treatment of micropollutants present in wastewater: A special emphasis on transformation products, their toxicity, detection, and field-scale investigations

Micropollutants have become ubiquitous in aqueous environments due to the increased use of pharmaceuticals, personal care products, pesticides, and other compounds. In this review, the removal of micropollutants from aqueous matrices using various advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), such as photocatalysis, electrocatalysis, sulfate radical-based AOPs, ozonation, and Fenton-based processes has been comprehensively discussed. Most of the compounds were successfully degraded with an efficiency of more than 90%, resulting in the formation of transformation products (TPs). In this respect, degradation pathways with multiple mechanisms, including decarboxylation, hydroxylation, and halogenation, have been illustrated. Various techniques for the analysis of micropollutants and their TPs have been discussed. Additionally, the ecotoxicity posed by these TPs was determined using the toxicity estimation software tool (T.E.S.T.). Finally, the performance and cost-effectiveness of the AOPs at the pilot scale have been reviewed. The current review will help in understanding the treatment efficacy of different AOPs, degradation pathways, and ecotoxicity of TPs so formed.

Carbon nanotube-wastewater treatment nexus: Where are we heading to?

Water treatment is crucial in solving the rising people's appetite for water and global water shortages. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have considerable promise for water treatment because of their adjustable and distinctive arbitrary, physical, as well as chemical characteristics. This illustrates the benefits and risks of integrating CNT into the traditional water treatment resource. Due to their outstanding adsorbent ability and chemical and mechanical properties, CNTs have gained global consideration in environmental applications. The desalination and extraction capability of CNT were improved due to chemical or physical modifications in pure CNTs by various functional groups. The CNT-based composites have many benefits, such as antifouling performance, high selectivity, and increased water permeability. Nevertheless, their full-scale implementations are still constrained by their high costs. Functionalized CNTs and their promising nanocomposites to eliminate contaminants are advised for marketing and extensive water/wastewater treatment.

Removal of chloramphenicol antibiotics in natural and engineered water systems: Review of reaction mechanisms and product toxicity

Chloramphenicol antibiotics are widely applied in human and veterinary medicine. They experience natural attenuation and/or chemical degradation during oxidative water treatment. However, the environmental risks posed by the transformation products of such organic contaminants remain largely unknown from the literature. As such, this review aims to summarize and analyze the elimination efficiency, reaction mechanisms, and resulting product risks of three typical chloramphenicol antibiotics (chloramphenicol, thiamphenicol, and florfenicol) from these transformation processes. The obtained results suggest that limited attenuation of these micropollutants is observed during hydrolysis, biodegradation, and photolysis. Comparatively, prominent abatement of these compounds is accomplished using advanced oxidation processes; however, efficient mineralization is still difficult given the formation of recalcitrant products. The in silico prediction on the multi-endpoint toxicity and biodegradability of different products is systematically performed. Most of the transformation products are estimated with acute and chronic aquatic toxicity, genotoxicity, and developmental toxicity. Furthermore, the overall reaction mechanisms of these contaminants induced by multiple oxidizing species are revealed. Overall, this review unveils the non-overlooked and serious secondary risks and biodegradability recalcitrance of the degradation products of chloramphenicol antibiotics using a combined experimental and theoretical method. Strategic improvements of current treatment technologies are strongly recommended for complete water decontamination.

Occurrence, toxicity and adsorptive removal of the chloramphenicol antibiotic in water: a review

Chloramphenicol is a broad-spectrum bacterial antibiotic used against conjunctivitis, meningitis, plague, cholera, and typhoid fever. As a consequence, chloramphenicol ends up polluting the aquatic environment, wastewater treatment plants, and hospital wastewaters, thus disrupting ecosystems and inducing microbial resistance. Here, we review the occurrence, toxicity, and removal of chloramphenicol with emphasis on adsorption techniques. We present the adsorption performance of adsorbents such as biochar, activated carbon, porous carbon, metal-organic framework, composites, zeolites, minerals, molecularly imprinted polymers, and multi-walled carbon nanotubes. The effect of dose, pH, temperature, initial concentration, and contact time is discussed. Adsorption is controlled by π-π interactions, donor-acceptor interactions, hydrogen bonding, and electrostatic interactions. We also discuss isotherms, kinetics, thermodynamic data, selection of eluents, desorption efficiency, and regeneration of adsorbents. Porous carbon-based adsorbents exhibit excellent adsorption capacities of 500-1240 mg g^-1. Most adsorbents can be reused over at least four cycles.