Antibiotics Contaminated Irrigation Water: An Overview on Its Impact on Edible Crops and Visible Light Active Titania as Potential Photocatalysts for Irrigation Water Treatment

Abstract

Sub-therapeutic levels of antibiotics (ABs) are given to animals and poultry to promote growth and reduce disease. In agricultural environments, ABs reach croplands via animal manure used as fertilizer and/or ABs-contaminated water used for irrigation. The continuous discharge of ABs into the ecosystem raises growing concerns on the ABs contamination of edible crops. Tetracyclines (TCs) are among the most widely used ABs around the world. In this review, we discuss the contamination of irrigation water with TCs, its impact on edible crops, and the potential risks of crop contamination with TCs on human health. We propose solar-mediated photocatalytic degradation using Titania (TiO2) photocatalyst as a promising method to remove TCs from irrigation water. The photocatalytic activity of TiO2 can be enhanced by chemical modification to expand its activity under visible light irradiation. Herein, we aim for providing literature-based guidance on developing a visible light–active TiO2-based system to degrade TCs and other ABs in water streams. We include a summary of recent advances on this topic based on three main modification methods of Titania: metal/non-metal/mixed doping, composite formation, and heterojunction construction. Among the investigated photocatalysts, Fe2O3-TiO2/Fe-zeolite and the N-doped TiO2/rGO immobilized composite catalysts were found to be very efficient in the degradation of TCs under visible light irradiation (i.e., 98% degradation within 60 min). Most immobilized TiO2 based composite systems exhibited improved performances and hence we highlight these as efficient, cost effective and ecofriendly photocatalysts for the degradation of TCs in irrigation water.

Titania-zeolite composite for tetracycline photocatalytic degradation under visible light: A comparison between doping and ion exchange

“…Under blue light that symbolizes the near visible region in the light spectrum, TiO₂ is very active as reported in literature because it exhibits a high band gap energy [ 47 ]. Therefore, many studies applied a variety of modification methods to improve the performance of TiO₂ under visible light by enhancing its visible light absorption [ 2 , 5 , 48 ]. As shown in Fig.…”

“…Antibiotic resistance is a concerning health threat affecting various species on the planet, including humans. The main reason behind this issue is the continuous discharge of antibiotics into the environment through untreated wastewater from hospitals, sewage, poultry, and livestock [ [1] , [2] , [3] ]. Tetracyclines are a group of antibiotics including chlortetracycline, oxytetracycline, tetracycline hydrochloride, and tetracycline.…”

“…Tetracyclines are a group of antibiotics including chlortetracycline, oxytetracycline, tetracycline hydrochloride, and tetracycline. Tetracyclines are the second most used antibiotic group worldwide wide due to their wide antimicrobial spectrum and low cost [ 2 , 4 ]. Heterogeneous photocatalysis used under solar light has gained interest in the last few years for degrading organic pollutants including pharmaceuticals as an ecofriendly technology [ 5 ].…”

Preparation of MnO2-Carbon Materials and Their Applications in Photocatalytic Water Treatment

“…Among them, the pollutants (phenols, antibiotics, organic dyes, heavy metal, etc.) produced by agriculture [ 185 ], aquaculture [ 186 , 187 ], carbon aerogels, textiles [ 188 , 189 ] and other industries are highly toxic and difficult to biodegrade [ 180 ]. The pollution of water bodies will not only destroy the ecosystem but also seriously threaten human health [ 190 , 191 ].…”

Controlled synthesis of Cu-MOF possessing peroxidase-mimetic activity for the colorimetric detection of tetracycline in aqueous solution

“…For example, hospital wastewater has a higher concentration of tetracycline of up to 100 mg L À1 compared to that of domestic wastewaters (B1 mg L À1 ). 2,3 Moreover, the high hydrophobicity and low volatility of tetracycline causes it to remain in wastewater for 34 to 329 h. 4 These residues can have a negative impact on human health as well as the environment through a series of physicochemical and biological processes. Moreover, the long-term exposure or consumption of such residues may cause the failure of treatments due to the development of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the bacterial community.…”