Abstract
Activated carbon (AC) can be used for the removal of emerging contaminants (e.g., drugs) in water and wastewater treatment plants. In the present study, we investigated the performance of two ACs (from coconut shell and Pinnus sp.) in the adsorption of caffeine, carbamazepine, and ricobendazole considering the compounds separately and in combination in batch-scale experiments. The concentrations of the drugs were determined by a validated method using solid-phase extraction with on-line ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The most mesoporous AC provided higher drug removal. The kinetic data were described by the pseudo-second-order, Elovich, and Weber-Morris models, while the adsorption isotherms showed a better fit to the Freundlich model, indicative of multilayer adsorption. The Dubinin-Radushkevich model was used as a first approach to estimate the mean adsorption energy (E) and the results indicate that chemisorption governed the adsorption process, with E higher than 8 kJ mol−1. In the multicomponent assays, the adsorption of caffeine showed the greatest hindrance caused by the presence of other drugs. Multicomponent assays are fundamental to evaluate the potential adsorption capacity in real water treatment plants. Our study suggests that drugs with different structures and physicochemical properties may interact differently with ACs, especially in multicomponent solutions, with important implications for the design (e.g., volumes and areas of treatment plants) and operation (e.g., water residence time) of the treatment plants.
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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article and its supplementary information files. The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful for the financial support provided by the Brazilian agencies Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP, grant #2018/03571-2), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq, grants #301737/2017-7, 406855/2016-1, and 310844/2020-7), and Instituto Nacional de Ciências e Tecnologias Analíticas Avançadas (INCTAA: FAPESP, grant #2014/50951-4; CNPq, grant #465768/2014-8). Scholarships were awarded to V.D. (CNPq, grant #131091/2018-2) and L.S.A (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior). The authors also thank CAQI/IQSC/USP for the use of the SEM facilities.
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The financial support was provided by FAPESP, CAPES, CNPq, and INCTAA. The detailed funding grant number is highlighted in the Acknowledgements section.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Vinicius Diniz: method, validation, formal analysis, and investigation, visualization, writing—original draft, and writing—review and editing. Gabriela Rath: analytical method validation, investigation, visualization, and writing—review and editing. Susanne Rath: analytical method validation, funding acquisition, visualization, writing—original draft, and writing—review and editing. Larissa Sene Araújo: method, validation, formal analysis, and investigation. Davi Gasparini Fernandes Cunha: supervision, project administration, funding acquisition, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing and visualization. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Vinicius Diniz, Davi Gasparini Fernandes Cunha, and Susanne Rath, and all authors commented on the versions of the manuscript.
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Diniz, ., Rath, G., Rath, S. et al. Competitive kinetics of adsorption onto activated carbon for emerging contaminants with contrasting physicochemical properties. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 42185–42200 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16043-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16043-2