Efficient adsorption of tetracycline from aqueous solution using copper and zinc oxides modified porous boron nitride adsorbent

It is a significant and challenging mission to explore high-efficiency adsorbents with low cost and high stability for wastewater purification treatment. In this paper, bimetallic copper and zinc oxides modified porous boron nitride (BN) was successfully obtained via an improved impregnation method. The synthesized materials were comprehensive characterized by multiple approaches including SEM, TEM, FT-IR, XRD, BET and XPS. The composite adsorbent possessed a high specific surface area and pore volume, which was conducive to the effectively adsorption of tetracycline (TC) pollutants in an aqueous solution. Notably, the optimal adsorption capacity could achieve to 623.018 mg L-1, and more than 96% of TC pollutants could be removed rapidly. The fitting results of kinetic data were stayed the same with the kinetic model of second-order (R2 & GE; 0.998). Moreover, adsorption isotherms were in accordance with the Tempkin model, indicating that the superior adsorption performance was mainly due to electrostatic interaction, 7C-7C stacking and hydrogen bonding. The thermodynamic research illustrated that the main process of adsorption is endothermic and spontaneous. In addition, the composite adsorbent also has favorable stability and reusability. These results show that copper and zinc oxides modified BN adsorbent can exhibit a better application potential in the removal of TC.

Automated summary

This paper successfully obtained bimetallic copper and zinc oxides modified porous boron nitride (BN) via an improved impregnation method. The composite adsorbent exhibited a high specific surface area and pore volume, leading to effective adsorption of tetracycline (TC) pollutants in an aqueous solution. The adsorption process followed the second-order kinetic model and the adsorption isotherms fit well with the Tempkin model, indicating electrostatic interaction, 7C-7C stacking, and hydrogen bonding played an important role in the superior adsorption performance. Moreover, the adsorbent showed good stability and reusability.