Photolytic degradation of fluoroquinolone carboxylic acids in aqueous solution .1. Primary photoproducts and half-lives

The photolytically induced decomposition of fluoroquinolone carboxylic acids (enrofloxacin, danofloxacin, ciprofloxacin and norfloxacin) at concentrations of 10 mg/l in pure water and an irradiation intensity of 200 W/m(2) (xenon lamp) led to half-lives from 20.6 min (danofloxacin) to 105.9 min (norfloxacin). The environmental half-life of enrofloxacin was calculated by the GCSOLAR program and resulted in 1.8 to 55.4 hours, depending on the season and degree of latitude. During the irradiation procedure, products were built up which primarily demonstrated alterations involving the piperazine ring as compared with the parent compounds. The amount of (CO2)-C-14 evolved by the photomineralization of C-labeled enrofloxacin reached 26.4 % of the applied radioactivity. The main photoproducts were isolated by HPLC and their structural elucidation was carried out by different spectroscopic methods (MS, GC/MS and H-1-NMR).