Abstract
Based on the adsorption performance of a porous nanocomposite with limestone (LS), activated carbon (AC) and sodium alginate (SG), a unique, multifunctional LS–AC–SG nanocomposite absorbent was designed and prepared for extracting antibiotics and drugs from aqueous solutions. The composite exhibited the following advantages: quick and simple to prepare, multifunctionality and high efficiency. Amoxicillin (AMX) and diclofenac (DCF) were chosen as the conventional antibiotic and the drug, respectively. The prepared nanocomposite’s physicochemical characteristics were calculated through numerous characterization methods. The structure of the surface was made up of interconnected pores that can easily confine pollutants. The surface area was measured to be 27.85 m2/g through BET analysis. The results show that the maximum absorption capacity of amoxicillin and diclofenac was 99.6% and 98.4%, respectively, at a contact time of 40 min. The maximum removal of amoxicillin and diclofenac was reached at pH = 2. Adsorption analysis revealed that adsorption isotherm and kinetic data matched the pseudo-first-order kinetic and the Langmuir isotherm models. The results imply that the synthesized nanocomposites have the capacity to remove amoxicillin (AMX) and diclofenac (DCF) from aqueous solutions.
Highlights
Alginate and activated carbon are not always successful in water treatment on their own; the combination of the three create an effective composite material for removing antibiotic and drug residues from aqueous solutions. Their combined roles within the LS–AC–AlG nanocomposite was expected to show a synergistic effect on the efficient removal of AMX and DCF, which is closely related to the enhancement of adsorption from water matrices
Nanocom−1 and correlated with sponding to the phenolic group appeared at approximately cm posites before and after amoxicillin and diclofenac adsorption
A linear relationship was noticed for the adsorption of AMX and DCF ions onto the LS–AC–sodium alginate (SG) nanocomposite
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Brown seaweeds feature a natural polysaccharide called alginate [25,29] It is an efficient, inexpensive and non-toxic material generally used as one of the biopolymers for pollutants release from aqueous solutions. Alginate and activated carbon are not always successful in water treatment on their own; the combination of the three create an effective composite material for removing antibiotic and drug residues from aqueous solutions. In this study, their combined roles within the LS–AC–AlG nanocomposite was expected to show a synergistic effect on the efficient removal of AMX and DCF, which is closely related to the enhancement of adsorption from water matrices. Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models, in addition to kinetic models, were used to analyze the experimental equilibrium data
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