Adsorption of ciprofloxacin onto biocomposite fibers of graphene oxide/calcium alginate

•Novel biocomposite fibers of graphene oxide doped calcium alginate were prepared by wet spinning.•GO can significantly improve the adsorption capacities of ciprofloxacin onto GO/CA fibers.•The removal percentage of the GO/CA fibers reaches 78.9% at the adsorbent dose of 2 g/L.

A new kind of biocomposite fibers, graphene oxide doped calcium alginate (GO/CA), was prepared by a wet spinning method. The adsorption properties of ciprofloxacin onto the GO/CA fibers were studied through investigating the effect factors such as pH, dosage, and contact time. The optimum pH of ciprofloxacin adsorbed by the GO/CA fibers is 5.9. The removal percentage of the GO/CA fibers reaches 78.9% at the adsorbent dose of 2 g/L and GO loading of 6%. The adsorption data can be fitted well by the Freundlich model. The adsorption capacity increases from 18.45 mg/g to 39.06 mg/g with increasing the graphene oxide loading in the fibers from 0% to 6% at the ciprofloxacin equilibrium concentration of 60 mg/L. The kinetic adsorption data are fitted well by the pseudo-second-order model.