Adsorption studies of carbamazepine by green-synthesized magnetic nanosorbents

Abstract

Pharmaceutical and personal care products are extensively used, and their residues are frequently reported in aquatic environments. Persistency and insufficient removal of carbamazepine, an antiepileptic and anticonvulsant drug, from the environment are quite alarming. Surface-modified iron oxide nanoparticles, as nanosorbents, have the potential to become a promising wastewater treatment strategy. The present study was conducted to investigate the potential of green-synthesized superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles in the effective adsorption of carbamazepine for remediation purposes. In this study, the magnetic nanosorbents were synthesized by co-precipitation method, using Piper betle leaves, Colocasia esculenta corms and Nelumbo nucifera stalks extracts for modification of the surface of the nanoparticles. The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized using various spectroscopic and microscopic techniques, namely UV/visible spectrophotometry, X-ray diffraction, FTIR, EDX spectroscopy, DLS analysis, zeta potential analysis, scanning electron microscopy and VSM analysis. When the adsorption potential of the synthesized nanoparticles was studied, highest removal efficiency (52% at 5 ppm) was noted with N. nucifera extract-coated nanoparticle. Moreover, the interaction of carbamazepine and the nanoparticles could be explained using Langmuir’s isotherm model.