Reactive adsorption of penicillin on activated carbons

Abstract

A series of activated carbons with varied surface chemistry, obtained by wet oxidation and thermal treatment, was used for the removal of penicillin from low concentration aqueous solution. It was found that the carbon surface chemistry favors the degradation of the antibiotic, giving rise to various intermediates detected both in solution and in the adsorbed phase (deposited with the pore structure of the activated carbons). The confinement of penicillin molecules entrapped in the nanopores of activated carbons of acidic nature accelerates their degradation compared to that one in the bulk solution, which can be linked the strong local pH fall inside the pores. Degradation also takes place in activated carbons of basic pH, although the nature and partition of the intermediates formed differ from those in the acidic carbons. In both cases most of the breakdown products do not present therapeutic activity.

Upgrading of Wastewater Treatment Plants Through the Use of Unconventional Treatment Technologies: Removal of Lidocaine, Tramadol, Venlafaxine and Their Metabolites

“…recent years, studies of AC adsorption in laboratory systems, pilot and full-scale drinking water treatment plants have been carried out reporting successful removal of some micropollutants including pharmaceuticals such as antibiotics and endocrine disrupting compounds [21][22][23][24][25]. There are many technologies available for the implementation of AC for wastewater treatment and each of them should be evaluated separately.…”

Pt/carbon materials as bi-functional catalysts for n-decane hydroisomerization

“…However, based on these results it seems that on mild oxidation (21% HNO 3 ) most of the surface functional groups would be mainly located near the outer surface of the carbon particles; in contrast, a more homogeneously distribution in the carbon matrix would be obtained when oxidizing with 65% HNO 3 . It has to be mention that the use of highly concentrate HNO 3 is not commonly reported in the literature [3,35,42] although from our results we can conclude that the surface chemistry modification lead to an optimized bifunctional catalyst with small and homogeneously distributed Pt particles over both outer and inner surfaces.…”

“…The use of a concentrated HNO 3 solution (i.e., 65 wt.%) lead to a fall in the V meso whereas the V micro remained rather unchanged; when less concentrated acid solution was used a slight increase in the microporosity accessible to N 2 was observed. Such slight increase in the surface area and V micro upon oxidation at mild conditions is not the expected trend commonly reported for oxidation of carbon samples, which is usually associated to a drop in the specific surface area due to the destruction of some thin pore walls and/or pore blocking by the fixation of surface oxygen groups at the pore entrances [3,35,36].…”

“…Activated carbons are amorphous materials with unique properties due to their large internal surface area, pore volume and surface chemistry properties, which have been extensively used in many science and engineering fields as adsorbents, catalysts and catalysts supports [1][2][3][4]. The majority of these applications derives from the flexible coordination chemistry of carbon atoms that allows an infinite possibility of three-dimensional structures with expanded pore network, and their versatile surface chemistry [1,5,6].…”

Adsorption of penicillin by decaffeinated tea waste

“…The pharmaceutical industry produces compounds that are toxic at trace concentrations if released to the environment in water or soil. Antibiotics are a sub-category of pharmaceuticals that may be released to the environment 1 . Methods for removing antibiotics from water or soil are being actively investigated; methods include coagulation & GAC fi ltration 2 , biodegradation 3 , biosorption 4 , and adsorption…”