Adsorptive removal of chloramphenicol from wastewater by NaOH modified bamboo charcoal

This study described the adsorption of chloramphenicol (CAP) in wastewater on the renewable bioresource of bamboo charcoal (BC). Results showed that CAP adsorption on BC (Ln qe = 1.272 Ln Ce + 1.971) and H2SO4 modified BC (Ln qe = 1.851 Ln Ce + 0.659) were very slight, and on NaOH modified BC was significantly increased (Ln qe = 0.344 Ln Ce + 6.490). The adsorbents were characterized by N2 adsorption–desorption, X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). It is revealed that BC and modified BC had very small surface areas of less than 1 m2 g−1, H2SO4 treatment led to minimal variation in surface functional groups, and NaOH treatment increased the percentage of surface graphitic carbon and other oxygen-containing groups. The increased adsorption of CAP on NaOH modified BC was mainly ascribed to the enhancement of the π–π interaction between the adsorbent and adsorbate.