UV-Driven Degradation of Amantadine over a Photodeposited Pt/TiO2 Porous Ceramic Composite and Transformation Pathways

Amantadine (AMN) is a persistent and structurally recalcitrant antiviral contaminant. In this work, a recoverable Pt/TiO2 porous ceramic composite was fabricated by photodeposition and ceramic immobilization for UV-driven AMN degradation. Under Box-Behnken-optimized conditions (1.5 wt % Pt loading, catalyst dosage 2.0 g/L, and initial pH 9.0), AMN removal reached about 72% within 4 h, and the catalyst retained >50% removal after six cycles with low Pt leaching. Scavenger experiments indicated that h+ and •O2– were the dominant reactive species, and HPLC-MS identified six transformation products, from which two tentative degradation pathways were proposed. QSAR-based evaluation suggested lower bioaccumulation potential and reduced developmental toxicity for most terminal products, although incomplete predictions for some species warrant caution. These results support immobilized Pt/TiO2 photocatalysis as a practical strategy for AMN-contaminated water treatment.