Anodic Degradation of Ofloxacin on a Boron-Doped Diamond Electrode

This study investigates the electrochemical oxidation of ofloxacin mainly on a boron-doped diamond (BDD) anode under galvanostatic electrolysis. The influence of operating parameters such as current density, initial concentration of ofloxacin, and temperature was investigated. For comparison, a Pt planar electrode and a dimensional stable anode (DSA) were also tested. According to cyclic voltammetric analysis, the oxidation of ofloxacin on BDD was found to be electrochemically irreversible. The electro-degradation of ofloxacin was a pseudo-first-order reaction, and the apparent rate constant was 1.2×10-3 s-1 for the anodic ofloxacin oxidation on BDD at 100 mA/cm2 and 30°C in 0.1M Na2SO4 electrolyte. The degradation efficiency of ofloxacin increased with increasing current density and temperature, but noticeably decreased as initial ofloxacin concentration increased. Furthermore, the BDD anode was superior to the Pt and DSA electrodes for ofloxacin degradation in terms of degradation efficiency and oxidation rate. The activation energy for the ofloxacin degradation on BDD was 4.79 kJ/mol.