Removal of ciprofloxacin antibiotic by iron magnetic nanoparticles coated with lignin from hospital wastewater

Emerging contaminants in the environment have caused enormous concern in the last few decades, and among them, antibiotics have received special attention. On the other hand, adsorption has shown to be a useful, low-cost, and eco-friendly method for the removal of this type of contaminants from water. An understanding of the interaction mechanisms of antibiotics with environmentally relevant sorbents is important to determine the environmental fate of antibiotics and to develop wastewater treatment strategies. One of the widely used antibiotics is ciprofloxacin (CIP), which has been identified among the top 10 of high priority pharmaceuticals relevant for the water cycle in general[1,2]. Lignin is the second most abundant natural polymer with cellulose being number one, making up to 10–25% of lignocellulosic biomass. Lignin is a three-dimensional, highly cross-linked macromolecule composed of three types of substituted phenols, which include: coniferyl, sinapyl and p-coumaryl alcohols[3].Iron magnetic nanoparticles (Fe3O4) are used because of their high magnetic properties for separation and biological applications. Fe3O4 nanoparticles could easily aggregate due to the nanoscale effect and magnetic gravitational effect[4]. In this work lignin coated magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles were used for ciprofloxacin adsorption from aqueous solution. Fe3O4@Lignin nanoparticles were prepared and subsequently characterized using FTIR, XRD, SEM, VSM methods. This type of adsorbent is low cost, high efficient and reusable. Also, the parameters of the adsorbent dose, the pH, contact time and adsorption isotherms in the antibiotic removal process were investigated. The maximum removal percentage was obtained 74.5% for adsorption of ciprofloxacin.