Adsorption Characteristics of Sulfamethoxazole and Metronidazole on Activated Carbon

In this work, the removal of two pharmaceuticals i.e., an antibiotic drug, sulfamethoxazole and an antiparasitary drug, metronidazole onto activated carbon from aqueous solutions were studied. Batch adsorption studies were carried out at different pH, adsorbent concentrations, and temperatures. Adsorption isotherms have been modeled by Freundlich, Langmuir, and Dubinin-Raduskevitch (D-R) equations. The adsorption of these drugs was better represented by the Langmuir equation. The effect of the solution pH on the adsorbed amount of SM and MN was studied by varying the initial pH under constant process parameters at equilibrium conditions. The increase in pH of the solutions caused to decrease adsorption of SM and MN on AC. The kinetics of adsorption in view of three kinetic models, i.e., the first-order Lagergren model, the pseudo-second-order model, and the intraparticle diffusion model was discussed. The pseudo-second-order kinetic model describes the adsorption of both sulfamethoxazole and metronidazole on activated carbon. Rate constants for adsorption and desorption, and surface coverage have been evaluated with the help of another approach of the kinetic scheme. The effect of temperature was also studied at the range between 293 and 313 K. Thermodynamic parameters were calculated. The negative value of enthalpy change (Delta H degrees) indicated the exothermic nature of the adsorption process, and the negative values of free energy change (Delta G degrees) were indicative of spontaneity of the adsorption process. In this work adsorption behaviour of SM and MN on activated carbon was also evaluated by the data obtained from column experiments.