Abstract
Tetracycline (TC) are used as bacteriostatic agents, inhibits the synthesis of bacterial proteins, with activity against a
wide variety of organisms with application in human and veterinary medicine. The presence of TC in the
environment constitutes a serious problem, being weakly metabolized or absorbed into the human or animal body
con. TC residues even in low concentration may produce serious toxic and other effects on humans and living
organism. In this study are presented the applications of electrochemical advanced oxidation processes (EAOPs) for
degradation of TC using de BDD electrode. The influence of experimental parameters (COD, TOC, nitrogen (total
Kjeldhal, organic and inorganic), HPLC and UV-Vis spectrophotometry) on electrochemical degradation is
evaluated. A pseudo-first kinetic order is obtained for electrochemical reactions with BDD. Model TC solutions is
used and different experimental conditions, namely, initial concentration, initial pH, applied current density, type and
concentration of the electrolyte, is also tested. To study the influence of the experimental conditions on the
degradation of the antibiotic, assays was been running at experimental conditions that allow kinetic and/or diffusive
control, in order to determine medium mass transfer coefficients that help to predict degradation rates at
experimental conditions other than those tested.