Veterinary antibiotic sorption to soils and model soil components

GEOC 68

Dharni Vasudevan, dvasudev@bowdoin.edu, Department of Chemistry, Bowdoin College, 6600 College Station, Brunswick, ME 04011 and Allison A. MacKay, allison.mackay@UConn.edu, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Connecticut, 261 Glenbrook Road, Unit 2037, Storrs, CT 06269-9005.
Veterinary antibiotics such as oxytetracycline and ciprofloxacin represent organic compounds with multiple functional groups (amine, carboxylic, hydroxyl), each with a distinct pH dependant speciation. Using 30 soils from the eastern U.S, several pure phase metal oxides and aluminosilicates, and combination of batch experiments and infrared spectroscopy, we identify the contribution of each functional group to antibiotic retention in soils, while emphasizing likely mechanisms. Whereas a functional group interacts with soil minerals via one or more mechanisms of interaction (cation exchange, cation bridging, surface complex and electrostatic attraction), a single functional group may define the overall extent of sorption to soil. Additionally, we are able to establish steric and electronic criteria that differentiate the extent of sorption of antibiotics possessing the same dominant functional group. Our studies contribute to an improved understanding of the mechanisms by which complex polar ionogenic organic compounds interact with soil minerals.