Preliminary evaluation of the application of carbon nanotubes as potential adsorbents for the elimination of selected anticancer drugs from water matrices

The presence of anticancer drugs in the environment raises a major concern due to their potentially negative impact on living organisms, as they cause, inter alia, teratogenic, mutagenic, carcinogenic effects on growing cells. The main source of these pharmaceuticals in the environment is the ineffectively treated wastewaters, hence the efficient methods for their removal are required. In this study, we have evaluated for the first time the applicability of different Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNTs) as alternative adsorbents for the removal of three popular anticancer drugs from water matrices, which are detected in waste/hospital waters at the concentrations even up to μg L−1: cyclophosphamide (CP), ifosfamide (IF) and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). It was observed that adsorption equilibrium time was reached after 20 min for each compound and CNTs. Moreover, CP has the highest sorption potential (Kd up to 1597 L kg−1) for all CNTs and CNTs with the highest surface area have the greatest adsorption capacity. Isotherms were fitted best to the Freundlich model. Significant influence of pH in the range 4-9 and ionic strength was not observed what may indicate that adsorption is not dependent on fluctuation of basic environmental conditions.