Adsorption of triclosan on the reusable graphene oxide with cobalt ferrite from aqueous solution

Abstract

With the increase in personal hygiene care due to the COVID-19 pandemic, antibacterial soaps have also increased. Triclosan (TCS) is one of the main chemical residuals from these products and its presence can compromise aquatic ecosystems due to its adverse effects. Therefore, it is important to monitor triclosan that may be present in contaminated water and propose conventional and advanced treatments to remove this contaminant from the environment. The characterization by physicochemical and spectroscopic techniques indicated that the proposed functionalization was accomplished, obtaining a specific surface area of 27.32 m2/g, the morphology images demonstrate a heterogeneous material that facilitates the removal and functional groups in the material that help this adsorption process. In addition, GO-CoFe2O4 reached a maximum adsorption capacity of 134.25 mg g−1 at 318 K with an equilibrium time of 2 h, being highly efficient for TCS removal from aqueous solutions (93 %), obtaining a correlation factor of 0.914. The experimental data was better adjusted to the pseudo-second-order kinetic and Langmuir and Temkin's isotherm models, with maximum correlation factor values of 0.986 and 0.992 respectively. The adsorbent proved to be sustainable since it was able to maintain 92 % using 0.01 g of adsorbent and an initial concentration of triclosan of 30 mg L-1 the initial adsorption capacity after 10 reuse cycles. Therefore, the proposed adsorbent demonstrates an operational advantage in wastewater treatment. The present study aimed to develop an adsorbent material based on graphene oxide functionalized with cobalt ferrite to remove triclosan present in water.