Preparation and characterization of aluminum pillared K10 and KSF for adsorption of trimethoprim

Montmorillonite KSF and K10 were used as precursor materials for synthesis of aluminum pillared K10 and KSF (Al-K10 and Al-KSF) which characterized by TGA, XRD, SEM and FT-IR spectroscopic analysis. The sorption of trimethoprim (TMP) which is commonly employed as an antibiotic onto Al-K10 and Al-KSF was also investigated as a function of adsorbent dosage, solution pH, contact time and temperature. The adsorption kinetics was interpreted using pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order kinetic models and intraparticle diffusion model. The pseudo-second-order model provided the best correlation. Adsorption isotherm parameters were obtained from Freundlich, Langmuir and Dubinin–Radushkevich (DR) isotherm models. Adsorption of TMP onto Al-K10 and Al-KSF was physical in nature and ion-exchange mechanism for DR equation, respectively. Al-K10 exhibits higher removal capacity at lower adsorbent dosages in comparison with Al-KSF. The removal capacity was increased by increasing pH. ΔH0, ΔS0 and ΔG0 showed that adsorption of trimethoprim was endothermic, increasing randomness and not spontaneous in nature.