DİAZEPAM DEGRADATİON USİNG SOLAR PHOTOCATALYSİS

Benzodiazepine drugs are used all over the world for anxiety disorders, as anticonvulsants and anti-epileptics, and for terminally ill people as part of essential medicines list from the World Health Organisation (WHO). The WHO list includes diazepam, which is frequently found as residual pollutant in secondary effluents from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Aiming at the complete removing of this substance from the aqueous environments, two experiments were carried out using Advanced Oxidation Process (AOPs) by simulated solar irradiation with or without TiO2 as catalyst. Photocatalysis was much efficient (half-life = 6 hours) than photolysis (half-life = 34 hours) giving a series of byproduct that were identified by an LC system coupled to a hybrid linear quadrupole ion trap (LTQ)-Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) mass spectrometer