Modelling and optimization of amoxicillin degradation over ZnO and glucose oxidase modified TiO2 nanowire

Abstract

Recently, antibiotics posing threats to health and the environment have been highlighted. According to previous reports, amoxicillin is the most hazardous antibiotic in Tehran. In order to overcome the risks associated with the storage and contamination of oxidizing agents, a Janus structure of Ti/TiO₂/FA/GOx/ZnO is introduced for in situ steady generation and consumption of H₂O₂. The most efficient nanowire structure of TiO₂ is achieved at 140°C and 4.5 h. The footprints of GOx as the bioactive site to produce H₂O₂ and ZnO as the photoactive site to dope TiO₂ have been proved by Raman, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses. For the first time, a Minimum Run Resolution V screening has been implemented for seven factors in an amoxicillin degradation process by the so-called bio-photo-catalyst. According to analysis of variance (ANOVA), the significance of the three most important variables is as follows: amoxicillin concentration (C) > the area covered by TiO₂ nanowires (E) > ZnO/GOx (F) ratio. The significance of the model over the 95% confidence interval is confirmed by R² of 0.9970, F-value of 108.10.