Effective Remediation of an Antibacterial Drug from Aqua Matrix Using CaFe2O4/ZrO2 Nanocomposite Derived via Inorganic Chemical Pathway: Statistical Modelling by Response Surface Methodology

Abstract

With the rapid development in nanotechnology, the preparation of novel self-assembled nanoscale composite materials and their numerous environmental applications have become a promising area of research among the environmental scientists. In view of above, the present study aims at fabrication of a mesoporous nanoscale material of calcium ferrite-zirconium oxide-magnetic nanocomposite (CF-ZrO-MNC) to explore its application in adsorption-driven remediation process of tetracycline (TC). The characterisation study of the so-prepared CF-ZrO-MNC has revealed the presence of 0.1213 cc/g of mesoporous volume with a specific surface area of 95.32 m2/g. A comparative study performed between CF-ZrO-MNC, CaFe2O4 and ZrO2 nanoparticles has proven the superior adsorption capability of CF-ZrO-MNC for TC over the pure phases of parent CaFe2O4 and ZrO2 nanoparticles. The optimisation of TC adsorption process was performed by response surface methodology, which has revealed that 98.14% of TC removal can be obtained within 60 min of contact time using 4.0 g/L of CF-ZrO-MNC dose with 40.0 mg/L of TC concentration at solution pH 6.0. The kinetic and isotherm studies have presented pseudo-second-order kinetic and Freundlich isotherm model as the best-fitted models, respectively. The results of Langmuir isotherm model fitting indicated that CF-ZrO-MNC poses 92.59 mg/g of maximum TC adsorption capacity which has been proven to be highly effective as compared to previously reported adsorbents for the remediation of TC from aqueous media.