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Efficient removal of amoxicillin and paracetamol from aqueous solutions using magnetic activated carbon

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Abstract

Activated carbon (AC)/CoFe2O4 nanocomposites, MAC-1 and MAC-2, were prepared by a simple pyrolytic method using a mixture of iron(III)/cobalt(II) benzoates and iron(III)/cobalt(II) oxalates, respectively, and were used as efficient adsorbents for the removal of amoxicillin (AMX) and paracetamol (PCT) of aqueous effluents. The synthesized nanocomposites were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The sizes of cobalt ferrite nanoparticles formed from benzoates of iron(III)/cobalt(II) and oxalates of iron(III)/cobalt(II) precursors were in the ranges of 5–80 and 6–27 nm, respectively. The saturation magnetization (M s), remanence (M r) and coercivity (H c) of the MAC-2 nanocomposites were found to be 3.07 emu g−1, 1.36 emu g−1 and 762.49 Oe; for MAC-1, they were 0.2989 emu g−1, 0.0466 emu g−1 and 456.82 Oe. The adsorption kinetics and isotherm studies were investigated, and the results showed that the as-prepared nanocomposites MAC-1 and MAC-2 could be utilized as an efficient, magnetically separable adsorbent for environmental cleanup. The maximum sorption capacities obtained were 280.9 and 444.2 mg g−1 of AMX for MAC-1 and MAC-2, respectively, and 215.1 and 399.9 mg g−1 of PCT using MAC-1 and MAC-2, respectively. Both adsorbents were successfully used for simulated hospital effluents, removing at least 93.00 and 96.77% for MAC-1 and MAC-2, respectively, of a mixture of nine pharmaceuticals with high concentrations of sugars, organic components and saline concentrations.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq, Brazil) and the Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES, Brazil) for financial support, fellowships, grants and technical support. We also thank Chemaxon for giving an academic research licence for the Marvin Sketch software, version 16.11.1.0, (http://www.chemaxon.com), 2016 used for pharmaceutical physical–chemical properties. We also thank the Centre of Electron Microscopy (CME-UFRGS) for the use of the SEM microscope.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Chemistry, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Caroline Saucier, Eder C. Lima & Glaydson S. dos Reis

  2. Department of Chemistry, Kongunadu Arts and Science College, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, 641029, India

    P. Karthickeyan & V. Ranjithkumar

  3. Department of Metallurgy, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Engineering School, Av. Bento Gonçalves, 9500, Agronomia, Porto Alegre, 91501-970, Brazil

    Glaydson S. dos Reis & Irineu A. S. de Brum

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  1. Caroline Saucier
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  2. P. Karthickeyan
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  3. V. Ranjithkumar
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  4. Eder C. Lima
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  5. Glaydson S. dos Reis
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Correspondence to Glaydson S. dos Reis.

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Saucier, C., Karthickeyan, P., Ranjithkumar, V. et al. Efficient removal of amoxicillin and paracetamol from aqueous solutions using magnetic activated carbon. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24, 5918–5932 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-8304-7

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