Several groups of popular antibacterial agents (i.e., phenols, fluoroquinolones, aromatic N-oxides, and tetracyclines) were demonstrated in earlier studies to be highly susceptible to oxidation by manganese oxides, a common oxidant in soils. However, because of the high complexity, the reaction kinetics were not fully characterized. A mechanism-based kinetic model has now been developed to successfully describe the entire range of kinetic data for a total of 21 compounds of varying structural characteristics (with R~2 > 0.93). The model characterizes the reaction kinetics by two independent parameters, the reaction rate constant (k) and total reactive surface sites (S_(rxn)). The model fitting indicates that the reaction kinetics of antibacterials with MnO_2 are controlled by either the rate of surface precursor complex formation (for tetracyclines) or by the rate of electron transfer within the precursor complex (for phenols, fluoroquinolones, and aromatic N-oxides). The effect of reactant concentration, pH, and cosolutes on the reaction kinetics was evaluated and correlated to k and S_(rxn). All the trends are consistent with the proposed rate-limiting steps. This new model improves the ability to quantitatively evaluate the kinetics of oxidative transformation of organic contaminants by manganese oxides in well-defined systems.
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