Use of Model Compounds to Study Potential Removal of Pharmaceuticals Using Octolig®

• Main Author: Chang, Wen-shan
• Format: Others
• Published: Scholar Commons 2010
• Subjects: environment; chromatography; antibiotic; Amoxicillin; LGB; American Studies; Arts and Humanities
• Online Access: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/1597; https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2596&context=etd

The existence of pharmaceuticals in the environment has some adverse effects, and may pose threat to the organisms in the environment. The possibility of removing certain pharmaceuticals from wastewater was tested using Octolig®, a commercially available material with polyethyldiamine moieties covalently attached to high-surface area silica gel. Selected drug models were subjected to column chromatography in efforts to effect removal by means of ion encapsulation, the effectiveness of which would depend upon having appropriate anionic functional groups. The experimental results suggested that the model compounds, Rose Bengal, Eosin Y, Erythrosine , ZPS, and Lissamine Green B were successfully encapsulated by Octolig®, while Methylene Blue with quaternary ammonium groups was (statistically) not. In contrast, complete success was attained for removing of each of three xanthenylbenzenes (Rose Bengal, Eosin Y, Erythrosine) that have both phenolic and carboxylic acid groups. In addition complete success was attained for ZPS (zinc phthalocyaninetetrasulfonate) with sulfonate groups present. A test of a real pharmaceutical compound, Amoxicillin, indicated that Octolig® can be used to remove this compound from aqueous media.