Metal Organic Frameworks for Selective Degradation of Amoxicillin in Biomedical Wastes

The accumulation of antibiotics in wastewater has led to the development and spreading of antibiotic resistance in the environment. Amoxicillin (Amox), a beta-lactamic antibiotic, is one of the most frequently consumed antibiotics in the world. We have applied two metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) containing zinc(II) as platforms to degrade Amox. We have predicted the adsorption of this antibiotic via molecular docking calculations which have been further corroborated by means of Fourier transform infrared and UV-Vis spectroscopies, thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction and scanning microscopy measurements. We have subsequently performed mass spectrometry analysis of Amox@zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) and Amox@Zn(1,4-benzenedicarboxylate) (ZnBDC) to demonstrate the degradation of Amox upon contact with the Zn-containing frameworks. We propose a possible pathway for the degradation of Amox involving the cleavage of the four-membered β-lactam ring. These Zn-containing frameworks provide a biocompatible platform for the degradation in solution of Amox, which should also be suitable to degrade other β-lactam antibiotics.