Evaluation of the adsorption kinetics of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin by nano-clay

Pharmaceutical wastewaters are very harmful and dangerous not only to human beings, but also to all living beings. Antibiotics are part of the pharmaceutical waste and are organic pollutants of wastewater, and because they are not eliminated by Bioremediation, it has become a worrying factor in the world. Current technologies cannot effectively remove antibiotics. Hence, researchers are looking for new and low cost technologies, including adsorption methods using low-cost adsorbents and high performance. Therefore, this study was aimed to evaluation the effect of nano-clay on removal of ciprofloxacin from aqueous solution. This study was conducted on a laboratory scale. In the present study, the effect of the initial concentration of Pharmaceutical Wastewater has been studied, In order to determine the best kinetic model for adsorbing ciprofloxacin on nano-clay, pseudo-first order models, pseudo-second-order, and inter-diffusion kinetics models were used. The results of this study showed that with increasing ciprofloxacin concentration, the removal efficiency decreased, and the best adsorption kinetic model, Follows a pseudo-second-order (R2=1) kinetic model. Equilibrium adsorption capacity of pseudo-first order model and equilibrium adsorption capacity of pseudo-second-order model were calculated (5.870 mgg-1and 1.184 mgg-1). The study showed that the used nano-clay could be used as an inexpensive adsorbent, efficient and available to remove ciprofloxacin from the aqueous solution.