Removal of ciprofloxacin by gamma irradiation: Degradation mechanism and pathways of products studies

Ciprofloxacin (CIP) is one of the widely detected members of fluoroquinolone family in the aquatic environment that is often excreted through urine waste due to its incomplete metabolization in the human body as documented by various previous reports. In this regards the present study is focused on the complete degradation of CIP by gamma irradiation in the aquatic system. CIP, when treated at an initial concentration of 5.5 ppm, near complete degradation of 98% was achieved at absorbed dose of 1000 Gy. Furthermore, this study is also focused on the calculation of bimolecular kinetics of •OH with CIP which was observed to be 2.84 × 1010 M-1s -1. It was found that the G-values for CIP decreased with an increase in the absorbed dose and increased with increase in the initial concentration of CIP which is in complete agreement with our previous results. The important aspect of this study is the evaluation of major degradation products of CIP. Which confirm the oxidation of CIP as indicated by the UPLC - MS/MS and IC results, on the basis of which the degradation pathways were proposed