Abstract
Pharmaceuticals are known as challenging class of water pollutants that threaten worldwide waterbodies. Even in negligible concentrations, antibiotics could lead to the development of antibiotic resistance genes. In environmental and health protection against antibiotics, adsorption is a promising technique, and designing effective, sustainable, and non-toxic adsorbents is crucial. Herein, a magnetic chitosan@Ag-multiwalled carbon nanotube nanocomposite (MC@Ag-MWCN) was synthesized and applied to eliminate a common antibiotic ciprofloxacin (CIP) from aqueous solutions. FESEM, TEM, XRD and FTIR, techniques characterized the as-synthesized MC@Ag-MWCN. The study evaluates the efficacy of the various key factors such as pH, varied initial CIP concentrations, nanocomposite doses and contact time in CIP uptake. Experimental equilibrium and kinetic data were analyzed utilizing four commonly used isotherm models: Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin, and Dubinin-Radushkevich. Notably, the Langmuir isotherm model fitted best to CIP removal data by MC@Ag-MWCN with a qe of 31.26 mg/g. Also, the adsorption data correlated well with the pseudo-second-order kinetics model. Adsorption mechanism the removal of CIP using the MC@Ag-MWCN nanocomposite occurs through a combination of physical and chemical interactions, facilitated by the composite's structural and chemical properties. In conclusion, MC@Ag-MWCN shows promising adsorptive characteristics against recalcitrant antibiotic CIP.