Bogdan Feier*, Anca Florea*, Cecilia Cristea, Robert Săndulescu. Electrochemical detection and removal of pharmaceuticals in waste waters. Current Opinion in Electrochemistry, 11 (2018) 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coelec.2018.06.012

* equal contribution

ABSTRACT

The main classes of pharmaceuticals found in environmental samples, wastewaters included, contain various compounds such as antibiotics, antipyretics, analgesics, anti-inflammatories, antimicrobials and hormones. These compounds and their bioactive metabolites are continuously introduced into the aquatic systems at ng L⁻¹ or pg L⁻¹ levels by several routes including emission from production sites, direct disposal of drugs in households and hospitals, excretion after drug administration to humans and animals and water treatments in fish farms. Due to their toxicity and accumulation into living organism, their presence constitutes a serious environmental problem even at trace concentrations and, unfortunately, they are resistant to biological degradation processes, escaping almost intact from conventional wastewater treatments. Various detection methods using unmodified and modified electrodes with enzymes, antibodies and aptamers are presented, while the main part of this review is focusing on the removal of drugs from wastewaters by electrochemical methods. The main challenges as well as future trends regarding the electrochemical detection and removal methods are also pointed out.