Photocatalytic removal of cefazolin in a photoreactor packed with TiO₂-P25 nanoparticles supported on glass beads: an artificial neural network modeling

ABSTRACT

To operationalise the heterogeneous photocatalysis process, the present study investigated the efficiency of TiO₂-P25 nanoparticles immobilised on glass beads using the heat attachment method to remove cefazolin (CEF) as an antibiotic contaminant. The characteristics of the glass beads coated with TiO₂-P25 nanoparticles were probed by the Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) technique. The immobilised TiO₂-P25 nanoparticles manifested considerable efficiency in CEF removal in different operational conditions. The impact of various parameters, such as the ultraviolet light radiation time, initial concentration of CEF, light source power, inlet liquid volumetric flow rate, and pH of the solution, on the efficiency of CEF removal were examined. The results reveal that the removal percentage goes up as the irradiation time, volumetric flow rate, pH of the solution, and light source power increase while declining with a rise in the initial concentration of CEF. According to the findings, an initial CEF concentration of 20 mg L⁻¹ is entirely removed by 40 min UV irradiation with a 16 W light source, the volumetric flow rate of 300 mL min⁻¹, and the pH of 9.5. The reaction rate constant and adsorption coefficient of CEF on immobilised TiO₂ were estimated at 0.622 mg L⁻¹ min⁻¹ and 0.095 mg⁻¹ L via Langmuir- Hinshelwood kinetics. The outcomes of the mineralisation studies also display a considerable reduction of TOC and evolution of significant mineralisation products, like $N{O}_3^{-}$, $N{O}_2^{-}$, $N{H}_4^{+}$, and $S{O}_4^{2-}$. The experimental results were modelled by artificial neural networks (ANN). Comparing the experimental results with the ANN-predicted data shows the acceptable efficiency of modelling with ANN. The minimum MSE, R² value for all data (validation, training, and test), and R² value for simulated data were obtained at 0.00027811, 0.9971, and 0.9809, respectively. The relative importance of the parameters affecting the process evaluated by the ANN weights indicates that the irradiation time is the most important factor in the photocatalytic removal of CEF.

KEYWORDS:

• Heterogeneous photocatalysis
• immobilized TiO₂-P25 nanoparticles
• cefazolin
• artificial neural networks

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to thank the Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, for financially supporting this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).