Abstract
Graphene oxide (GO) was prepared from the graphite electrode of waste dry cells, and the application of the prepared GO as a potential adsorbent for rapid and effective removal of an antibiotic, azithromycin (AZM), has been investigated. The synthesis process of GO is very simple, cost-effective, and eco-friendly. As-prepared GO is characterized by field-emission scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffractometry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, elemental analysis, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller sorptometry, and zeta potential analysis. The obtained GO has been employed for removal of the widely used AZM antibiotic from an aqueous solution. The quantitative analysis of AZM before and after adsorption has been carried out by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. The adsorption of AZM by GO was performed in a batch of experiments where the effects of adsorbent (GO) dose, solution pH, temperature, and contact time were investigated. Under optimum conditions (pH = 7.0, contact time = 15 min, and adsorbent dose = 0.25 g/L), 98.8% AZM was removed from the aqueous solution. The rapid and effective removal of AZM was significantly controlled by the electrostatic attractions and hydrogen bonding on the surface of GO. Adsorption isotherms of AZM onto GO were fitted well with the Freundlich isotherm model, while the kinetic data were fitted perfectly with the pseudo-second order. Therefore, the simple, cost-effective, and eco-friendly synthesis of GO from waste material could be applicable to fabricate an effective and promising low-cost adsorbent for removal of AZM from aqueous media.