Effective removal of Amoxicillin, Cephalexin, Tetracycline and Penicillin G from aqueous solutions using activated carbon nanoparticles prepared from vine wood

The present study shows the applicability of carbon nanoparticles made from vine wood as an inexpensive adsorbent for the removal of Amoxicillin, Cephalexin, Tetracycline and Penicillin G from aqueous solutions. The activation of carbon nanoparticles was studied by aqueous solutions of NaOH, KOH, ZnCl2, NaCl and HNO3. The removal efficiency (R%) of pollutants showed that NaOH can be used as an efficient, low-cost and environmentally friendly activator (R% = 74–88). Infrared spectroscopy, XRD pattern, BET and BJH methods and scanning electron microscope (SEM) images were used to characterize the prepared carbon. The area and pore volume of activated carbon were obtained as 13.397 m2/g and 54.79 cm3/g, respectively. The SEM images showed a high porosity for activated carbon. Removal of antibiotics from aqueous samples was carried out using a modular method. The optimized parameters of pH 2, an amount of adsorbent of 0.4 g/L, a concentration of antibiotic solution of 20 mg L−1, a contact time of 8 h and a temperature of 45 °C were obtained in a modular way. Kinetic studies confirmed that the adsorption followed second-order reaction kinetics. Thermodynamic studies revealed that the process was spontaneous and endothermic. The reusability of sorbent was achieved by using of NaOH (5 w/w%) solution and recovery time of 4 h.