Analysis of pharmaceuticals in wastewater and their photodegradation

The present work deals with the development and validated simple HPLC/UV/FLD analytical procedure which enable the measurement of some of the most consumed pharmaceuticals in Jordan (Caffeine, Methotrexate, Diclofenac, Glimepiride, Ibuprofen) at concentration level of μg/L. Separation was on RP-C8 column with 1 ml/min flow rate of 1:1 H2O, acetonitrile with 0.1% trifluoroacetic acid, extraction on C18 cartridges of 200 ml sample volume. Correlation coefficients of the pharmaceuticals calibration were higher than 0.997 using UV detector and 0.996 using FLD detector. Recoveries were ranged between 90% - 110%. The lowest LOD was 0.38 mg/L. The RSD was ranged between 0.15%- and 9.82%. Samples were taken from three STPs in Amman/ Jordan and two hospital outer drains to detect the concentrations of the studied drugs, the highest concentration was found for Caffeine 1187 μg/L, Methotrexate 699 μg/L, Glimepiride 90 μg/L, Ibuprofen 66 μg/L and Diclofenac 65 μg/L. The study also focused on the photocatalytic degradation of these pharmaceuticals using TiO2 modified with SiO2, and the sun light with 8 hours concentration monitoring. The initial concentrations used in the solar bath system were