Adsorption characteristics of ciprofloxacin on the schorl: kinetics, thermodynamics, effect of metal ion and mechanisms

In this study, schorl was used as an effective adsorbent for ciprofloxacin removal from wastewater. The adsorption performance, mechanism and effect of metal ion on sorption were investigated. Adsorption capacity reached a maximum (8.49 mg/g) when the pH value was 5.5. The pseudo-second-order kinetic model and Freundlich model could better describe the experimental data. The negative ΔH (–22.96 KJ/mol) value showed that the adsorption process was exothermic. The results also indicated physical adsorption existed on the adsorption process, which was in agreement with the analysis of X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The desorption rate could reach 94%, which suggested that schorl had a good desorption and regeneration performance. Coexisting ions, such as Cu2+ and Al3+, could obviously inhibit adsorption, and the inhibition from Al3+ was significantly higher than that from Cu2+. However, the additional Zn2+ could slightly promote the adsorption.