Electrochemical oxidation of ethinylestradiol on a commercial Ti/Ru0.3 Ti0.7O2 DSA electrode.

Abstract

The electrochemical oxidation of the hormone ethinylestradiol in an aqueous-methanolic medium by the application of a constant current of 40mAcm−2 in a flow cell with a commercial Ti/Ru0.3 Ti0.7O2 electrode was evaluated. The effect caused by the use of NaCl as a support electrolyte was also investigated. Hence, HPLC-UV analyses revealed that ethinylestradiol was almost totally consumed after a 60 min reaction time in the presence of NaCl. Conversely, much lower degradation rates were obtained when NaCl was not employed. Moreover, direct infusion ESI-MS and GC-MS analysis revealed that apparently no degradation products had been formed under these conditions. Hence, this study clearly demonstrated that such electrochemical treatment can be efficiently used to promote the complete degradation (and probably mineralization) of the hormone ethinylestradiol.