Sonoamplified catalytic activation of potassium peroxydisulfate on the Ti₂AlC MAX phase for the removal of pharmaceutical contaminants

Herein, the activation of potassium peroxydisulfate (PDS) under ultrasound (US) irradiation using the Ti₂AlC MAX phase synthesized by the semi-reactive sintering method aimed to treat the water polluted with pharmaceutical contaminants such as cefixime. Ti₂AlC MAX phase (0.5 g/L) exhibited appropriate potential to activate PDS (0.7 mmol/L) under the US, resulting in a substantial degradation of several pharmaceutical contaminants containing cefixime (100 %), oxytetracycline (100 %), tilmicosin (100 %), phenazopyridine (100 %), and rifampin (97 %) within 80 min of reaction. Kinetic investigation verified that the degradation reactions followed pseudo-first-order kinetics. The effect of scavengers confirmed that electrons and singlet oxygen (¹O₂) were the most active species throughout the degradation. Moreover, total organic carbon (TOC) was performed to study the mineralization of cefixime during the sonocatalytic process. Additionally, a possible procedure for cefixime degradation was recommended based on recognized by-products with liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy (LC-MS). The possible harmful effects of cefixime degradation intermediates in water were evaluated using the Ecological Structure Activity Relationships (ECOSAR) system. The acquired results demonstrated the competence of the triple Ti₂AlC/PDS/US process as a capable novel procedure for the treatment of pharmaceutical-polluted water and wastewater resources.