Adsorption of vancomycin antibiotic from aqueous solution using an activated carbon impregnated magnetite composite

Vancomycin antibiotic is one of the most common antibiotics in hospitals in different parts of the world. The aim of this research was to synthesize a powder activated carbon impregnated magnetite composite (PAC/Fe3O4) for vancomycin removal from aqueous solution. The physical, chemical and surfaces characteristics of the synthesized composite were determined using XRD, SEM, VSM and BET techniques. Furthermore, several batch experiments were carried out to find vancomycin adsorption onto the PAC/Fe3O4 under various input variables namely, pH of aqueous media, reaction time, adsorbent dosages and initial antibiotic concentrations. In addition, isotherm and kinetic studies of antibiotic adsorptive removal were carried out using various models. Results showed that the maximum amount of vancomycin adsorption (97.83%) was obtained at pH of 5 during 60 min. Moreover, the direct and indirect relationships were observed between antibiotic removal and adsorbent dosage and initial antibiotic concentration, respectively. Furthermore, the obtained results of isotherm and kinetic studied revealed that Freundlich isotherm model and pseudo second-order kinetic model had the highest correlation with the experimental data of antibiotic adsorption. Finally, the reusability experiments showed that PAC/Fe3O4 cannot only has high ability of antibiotic adsorption, but also has high stability after five cycles of application.