ENIVRONMENT ASIA

Volume 13, No. S, Month JANUARY, Year 2020, Pages 54 - 63

Removal of norfloxacin antibiotic from aqueous solution by activated carbon prepared from pomelo peel biomass waste by chemical activation

Panida Prarat, Kamolchanok Hadsakunnee, Lucksamee Padejepan, Kanyaruk Prasertboonyai

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As Biomass waste, pomelo peel was used as precursor for activated carbon (ACs) preparation by phosphoric acid (PPA) and diammonium hydrogen orthophosphate (DAP) activation and to examine the feasibility of removing norfloxacin antibiotic (NOR) from aqueous solution. Characterizations of the ACs were performed using N2 adsorption-desorption isotherms, Fouriertransform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Elemental Analysis (EA), and Acid base titration. The BET analysis showed that PPA activation (P-PPA) possesses a higher porosity than DAP activation (P-DAP) with BET surface area of 626.92 m2/g. P-DAP shows a wealth of nitrogen-containing functional groups. Batch adsorption experiments indicated that NOR was adsorbed onto the P-DAP higher than P-PPA. The kinetic data of the adsorption process followed the pseudo-second order model, and the equilibrium data were described well by Freundlich isotherm. NOR adsorption was found to be strongly dependent on the pH of solution as well as the pKa of both adsorbents and NOR. The strong adsorptive interaction between NOR and adsorbents was mainly attributed to the combination interactions i.e. electrostatic interaction, hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions. Moreover, the presence of ions on adsorption process significantly decreased the NOR adsorption onto P-DAP due to the competitive adsorption.

Keywords

Adsorption, Activated carbon, Norfloxacin removal, Chemical activation

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