Mechanistic insights into acetaminophen removal on cashew nut shell biomass-derived activated carbons
- PDF / 2,069,386 Bytes
- 14 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 108 Downloads / 195 Views
INNOVATIONS IN WATER AND WASTEWATER TREATMENT
Mechanistic insights into acetaminophen removal on cashew nut shell biomass-derived activated carbons Alexandra Geczo 1 & Dimitrios Andreas Giannakoudakis 2 & Konstantinos Triantafyllidis 2 & Mohammed Ragab Elshaer 1 & Elena Rodríguez-Aguado 3 & Svetlana Bashkova 1 Received: 12 October 2019 / Accepted: 29 December 2019 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Activated carbons prepared from cashew nut shells by chemical activation with phosphoric acid were tested for the removal of acetaminophen. It was found that an increase in carbonization temperature resulted in increased pore volume and decreased amount of surface functional groups. Potentiometric titration analysis indicated that the majority of surface groups on carbons are acidic. Detailed surface characterization by FT-IR, XPS, and thermal analyses indicated the involvement of surface functional groups in the removal of acetaminophen either via hydrogen bonding or by acid hydrolysis. The carbon obtained at 600 °C, which contains high amount of carboxylic groups and high pore volume, exhibited the highest adsorption capacity. For this carbon, the removal of acetaminophen took place mostly via acid hydrolysis with the formation of p-aminophenol and acetic acid adsorbed on the surface. Carbon obtained at 400 °C was found to have the highest density of acidic functional groups, which resulted in dimerization reactions and pore blockage. No direct correlation was observed between the adsorption capacities of carbons and their textural or surface characteristics. This suggests the complexity of acetaminophen removal by the cashew nut shell-derived activated carbons, governed by their surface chemistry and supported by high surface area accessible via micro/ mesopores. Keywords Acetaminophen removal . Adsorption . Biomass-derived activated carbon . Cashew nut shells . Surface chemistry . Water remediation
Introduction Thousands of drugs are approved for prescription use in the USA, and many of them can end up in our water supply. Considering there are currently no federal or state regulations requiring drinking water or wastewater plants to monitor pharmaceutical compounds in water, many of these pharmaceuticals, even if present in trace amounts, may pose a potential risk for both humans and aquatic life. In 2013, EPA conducted Responsible editor: Tito Roberto Cadaval Jr * Svetlana Bashkova [email protected] 1
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, NJ 07940, USA
2
Department of Chemistry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
3
Departamento de Química Inorgánica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Málaga, Campus de Teatinos, 29071 Málaga, Spain
a study of water coming from wastewater treatment plants, where samples from 50 large-size wastewater treatment plants nationwide were tested for 56 drugs including oxycodone, high-blood pressure medications, and over-the-counter drugs like Tylenol and ibuprofen; more t
Data Loading...
