Natural cellulose for ranitidine drug removal from aqueous solutions

The natural biopolymer cellulose has been successfully used as sorbent due to its biocompatibility, degradability and chemical variability. For this application the pristine biomaterial was characterized through X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and carbon nuclear magnetic resonance. These results confirmed the biopolymer crystallinity. Its ability for ranitidine drug removal from aqueous solution was evaluated, investigating the effect of time, concentration, pH and temperature, to give favorable results in alkaline conditions. From the kinetic point of view, the sorptive process followed the pseudo-second-order model. The maximum sorption capacity gave 28.1; 32.1 and 32.9 mg g−1 at 298 ± 1; 308 ± 1 and 318 ± 1 K, respectively, after adjusting the data to the Freundlich model. The experimental data are in agreement that natural cellulose is a promising biopolymer to remove this drug from the environment.