Abstract

Antidiabetic Degradation by Photocatalysis in Aqueous Systems on TiO2 Powders

Author(s): Nacera Yeddou Mezenner and Amel Hamadi

The photocatalytic oxidation of metformin has been investigated at room temperature in a dynamic photoreactor with system UV/TiO2 under UVA (=365nm). The effect of various factors, such as photocatalyst dosage, initial substrate concentration, solution pH and co-existing inorganic ions (H2PO4 -, NO3 -) and pharmaceutical compound (Paracetamol) on the photocatalytic degradation of metformin was investigated. The experimental results indicate that the optimal pH for metformin elimination is about 8. The optimum catalyst concentration was found equal to 0.5 g/L, under optimal conditions, the extent of photocatalytic degradation was 91% after 135 min. The removal efficiency decreased from 91% to 87.1% and 76.07%, for metformin alone, in the presence of H2PO4 - and NO3 - respectively. The results indicated that the photocatalytic degradation of metformin followed the pseudo-first-order kinetics and the apparent first order rate constant (kapp) decreases with the increasing of the initial concentration of metformin.