The adsorption of Ibuprofen from aqueous solution using acid treated maize cob

The pharmaceutical industry is increasing its drug production due to increasing demand for pharmaceutically active compounds. As a result, the discharge of industrial effluents is regularly increasing, which creates a major concern about their harmful impact on human health and the aquatic medium. Therefore, elimination of pharmaceutical pollutants from water environment is essential. The current investigation explores the adsorption of ibuprofen by chemical modified maize cob from an aqueous solution. Thus, the use of acid treatment is anticipated to improve the adsorption capacity of maize cob. This new adsorbent, acid-treated maize cob (AT-MC), was used in batch studies using different parameters. According to the literature search conducted, this work is the first of its kind ever to report on this particular acid-treated maize cob for the removal of ibuprofen in water treatment. To demonstrate how well AT-MC performs in terms of ibuprofen uptake, the effects of pH (2-10), starting ibuprofen concentration (15–75 mg/L), contact time (1–100 min) and temperature (25–65 °C) are discussed. FTIR spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were used to examine the chemistry, surface morphology and stability of AT-MC and to evaluate the properties of the sorbent properties on ibuprofen removal. Isotherm studies indicated that the Langmuir model best described the sorption process proposing monolayer adsorption. The Pseudo First Order (PFO) kinetic model gave consistent fit in describing the adsorption of AT-MC, which suggested that the sorption mechanism involved van der Waals forces. The highest uptake of ibuprofen was obtained at pH 2 with a maximum adsorption capacity of 36.81 mg/g. The adsorption trends for ibuprofen decreased with increasing temperature, indicating that the adsorption for ibuprofen was exothermic. Negative values of ΔH° also suggested that the sorption process is exothermic. Thermodynamic values showed that the sorption process was feasible and spontaneous. Therefore, AT-MC can be used as possible sorbent for ibuprofen uptake of ibuprofen from aqueous media.