A Low-cost Material for the Adsorption of Antibiotics

Pharmaceutical pollutants are emerging contaminants that pose significant risk to human health and environment. Their mode of action and persistence in the environment makes them a major concern. The presence of these compounds in the environment has led to the degradation of surface and sub-surface water quality, affecting the health of living organisms. The conventional water techniques for the elimination of pollutants have several drawbacks such as high operational costs, formation of by-products and poor reusability. Conversely, adsorption technique can be considered as a preferred choice due to its simple design, ease of operation, adaptability, efficiency and low costs. The aim of this study is to develop and apply an eco-friendly, readily available, and low-cost adsorbent for the removal of vancomycin. The choice of this antibiotic can be justified by its occurrence in wastewaters, with detection limits of 100.0 - 246.6 ng/l, and been listed on the WHO priority list of antibiotic resistance. For this study, the sawdust was blended and sieved into various particle sizes varying from 90 to 850 µm. The sawdust was treated with 2M sulfuric acid for 24 hours at room temperature and washed with distilled water several times until the neutral pH of washings. The selected sawdust fraction with 180 – 250 µm particles sizes was analyzed using a range of instrumentation techniques. The characteristics of the
sawdust such as zeta potential, pH point zero charge, surface morphology, functional groups, specific surface area and pores volume were determined. The impact of operational parameters, including contact time, pH, temperature, and the initial concentration of the antibiotic on its adsorption on sawdust was evaluated using HPLC. The result of this study demonstrates how different adsorption parameters influence the adsorption of vancomycin on treated sawdust particles.