Antibiotic and anticancer drug degradation in artificial wastewater using non-thermal pencil plasma jet

The present work showed ampicillin and cloxacillin (antibiotics), and methotrexate (anticancer) drugs degradation using a non-thermal pencil plasma jet (NT-PPJ) in artificial wastewater. The presence of antibiotics and anticancer drugs is observed in wastewater due to dumping of these drugs by pharmaceutical industries, hospitals, and veterinary waste, etc. in river or backyard. Hence, these drugs creates environmental toxicity toward aquatic plants and animals, etc. The plasma-water interaction results in generation of various reactive species in water and changes the physicochemical properties of water that result in degradation of antibiotic and anticancer drugs present in water. A 9 minutes plasma treatment with drug-water solution showed 76.1%, 100%, and 100% degradation of ampicillin, cloxacillin, and methotrexate. Moreover, the observed mineralization of these drugs is given as 88.8%, 78.6%, and 84.5%, respectively. The analysis showed significantly reduction in toxicity of plasma-treated drug solutions compared to virgin drug solutions. The study reveals that the NT-PPJ treatment of artificial wastewater provides substantially higher drug degradation with low plasma treatment time compared to convention and other drug degradation techniques.