Applying the bdd electrode in the process of removing pharmaceuticals by electrochemical oxidation

Pharmaceuticals and their metabolites are inevitably emitted into the waters. The adverse environmental and human health effects of pharmaceutical residues in water could take place under a very low concentration range; from several μg/l to ng/l. These are challenges to the global water industries as there are no enough efficient processes for removing these pollutants. An efficient technology is thus sought to treat these pollutants in water and wastewater. Research involving electrochemical oxidation of emerging contaminants using BDD electrode is relatively new and more relevant information is still needed to obtain the desired result. The present work reports experimental results of the electrochemical oxidation of Ibuprofen (Ibu) solutions using boron-doped synthetic diamond (BDD) electrode. Electrochemical characterization of Ibu in a solution of 0,05 M Na2SO4 using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and the results of Ibuelectro oxidation using BDD electrode with current density of 30 mA /cm2 during 6 hours were shown. By using UV-VIS spectrophotometry and determination of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) decrease of the initial Ibu concentration has been shown, from 375 mg/l to 70 mg/l or 81,4% and decrease of COD value from 960 mg O2/l to 210 mg O2/l or about 78%, with a specific charge of 36 A h/l.