| Large quantities of antibiotics are administered to humans and animals to treat diseases and infection every year. Antibiotics are also commonly used at sub-therapeutic levels to livestock to prevent diseases and promote growth. But antibiotic resistance caused by misuse of the consequences has become a public health problem affecting public health. Environmental pollution caused by antibiotics abuse is very serious. Antibiotics wastewater, which inhibits the growth and metabolic processes of microorganisms in wastewater, is generally characterized by complex components, toxicity and non-biodegradability.The adsorption property of acetaminophen (analgesic) and nalidixic acid (antibiotic), which represent different physiochemical properties and types of pharmaceuticals, were evaluated by batch adsorption experiments with a low-cost lotus stalk activated carbon (LSAC) by phosphoric acid activation. The influence of different parameters such as initial pH, ionic strength and alcohol concentration has been carried out. BET results show that, the surface of LSAC is rough, with irregular porous structure. Through the infrared spectrum to analyse the chemical properties of LSAC, the results showed that the LSAC contained a variety of oxygen functional groups with phosphoric acid.The results showed that the adsorption kinetics of both pharmaceuticals followed the pseudo-second-order model. The adsorption of acetaminophen and nalidixic acid was not dependent on the system ionic strength. However, the addition of alcohol caused considerable decrease of removal acetaminophen and nalidixic acid in the solution. On the sorption process, hydrophobic interaction and electrostatic repulsive were the dominant mechanisms for acetaminophen and nalidixic acid removal. |
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