Advanced oxidation processes employment for the degradation of lamivudine: kinetic assessment, toxicity study and mathematical modeling

Abstract Population growth has led to an increase in the production and use of synthetic compounds such as drugs, whose different classes are being investigated. However, the antiretrovirals are still poorly studied. Since the conventional treatments used in the effluent treatment plants have not been able to degrade these substances, other treatment techniques have been evaluated. Therefore, the objective of this work was to study and optimize the use of advanced oxidative processes (AOPs) in the degradation of lamivudine. It was found, initially, that the photo-peroxidation degraded 69% of the compound after 60 min of exposure to UV-C radiation, and that after evaluating the effect of the [H2O2], a degradation of 95% was achieved by using 250 mg L−1 of this reagent. The reaction kinetics showed a good fit to the pseudo-first-order model, and the artificial neural network MLP (3-12-1) demonstrated a good accuracy, managing to predict percentages of degradation for the studied AOP. Toxicity tests indicated an increase in the toxic effect on seeds, but the same was not observed in relation to enterobacteria. In general, the appropriateness of the application of AOP in the degradation of the aqueous solution has been demonstrated, with the largest studies regarding the effects of toxicity.