Abstract: Municipal wastewater plant is an important source of antibiotics in the environment. Development of analytical methods for simultaneous determination of diverse antibiotics in municipal wastewater is crucial for monitoring and regulation of antibiotics. An analytic method based on highperformance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet and fluorescence detector was developed for simultaneously analyzing the presence of 11 antibiotics among four classes of antibiotics most frequently detected in wastewater treatment plants in China. Under a set of optimum analytic parameters, complete separation and detection of the 11 target antibiotics and an internal standard (R>1.5) were obtained by employing an ultraviolet detector. By employing tandem fluorescence detector, lower detection limits were obtained for fluoroquinolone antibiotics. Limits of detection for the 11 target antibiotics ranged from 4.19 to22.8 μg·L^-1, quantitative limits fell within 5.1-56.4 μg·L^-1, and recovery rates were 43.5%-102.8%. Sewage samples from inlet and outlet of a wastewater treatment plant in Shenyang were analyzed by such method. Sulfadiazine, ciprofloxacin, and norfloxacin were detected in the inlet samples, with concentrations of 440.9, 2784.8, and 515.2 ng·L^-1, respectively. In the outlet samples, only ciprofloxacin and norfloxacin were detected, with concentrations of 118.9 and 444.7 ng·L^-1, respectively. This method is convenient, time-saving, low in detection limit, and thus is suitable for regular analysis of antibiotics in wastewater treatment plants in China.

Key words: antibiotics, wastewater treatment plant, simultaneous detection, HPLC-UV/FLD.