Metoprolol Removal from Water Using Fe3O4/TiO2/Activated Carbon Nanocomposite: Adsorption Isotherm, Kinetics and Thermodynamics

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Department of Chemistry, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran

2 Nanotechnology Research Center, School of Pharmacy, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran

Abstract

Metoprolol (MTP), a selective beta-blocker with low biodegradability, is an important micro-pollutant that has been widely identified in surface water and wastewater. In this work, the removal of MTP from aqueous solutions has been performed using Iron oxide/Titanium oxide/activated carbon (Fe3O4/TiO2/AC) nanocomposite as a new adsorbent. The nanocomposite was characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR), Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) techniques. The maximum efficiency of MTP removal was 96.2% at dosage of 1.5 g L-1 of adsorbent dosage , an initial concentration of 10 mg L-1 of drug, contact time of 60 minutes at 25 °C, and pH = 8.0. Freundlich and Pseudo-second-order models were found to be the best fitting isotherm and kinetic models, respectively. In addition, the values of thermodynamic parameters including ΔH, ΔS, and ΔG were: -75.20, -0.23, and -7.55 kJ/mol, respectively. These results confirmed that the adsorption process of MTP on Fe3O4/TiO2/AC was exothermic and spontaneous. Fe3O4/TiO2/AC nanocomposite was successfully used for the removal of MTP from real water solutions.

Keywords