Application of Nickel Ferrite Nanoparticles in Adsorption of Amoxicillin Antibiotic

According to the World Health Organization, amoxicillin (AMX) is the most widely consumed antibiotic in the world. Consequently, there is great interest in the development of new technologies that allow the removal of this type of contaminant, as exposure to antibiotic residues can cause a variety of adverse effects, such as toxicity and antimicrobial resistance. In this work, AMX adsorption from aqueous solution was investigated using nickel ferrite nanoparticles. The nanoadsorbents were prepared by the coprecipitation method, annealed at 300 to 700 °C, and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Mössbauer spectroscopy (ME) and vibratory sample magnetometry (VSM). Nanoparticle size, pH and temperature were found to significantly affect the amount of adsorbed AMX. The pseudo-second order kinetic model described the adsorption process and the adsorption isotherm fitted to the Freundlich model. AMX adsorption capacity was 104-45 mg g − 1 (miligram of AMX per gram of ferrite) for ferrite annealed at 300-700 °C, respectively. The nanoadsorbents employed showed higher AMX removal efficiency when compared to other iron oxides. Moreover, the good reuse results obtained showed their great potential for antibiotic removal by adsorption.
Source: Journal of the Brazilian Chemical Society - Category: Chemistry Source Type: research