Applied Chemical Engineering

Efficient adsorption of drugs from aqueous solution using a activated carbon derived from Iraqi date pits

Noor Mohammed Khadum

Department of Chemistry, Women's College of Education, University of Kufa, Iraq

lekaa Hussein Khadum

Department of Chemistry, Women's College of Education, University of Kufa, Iraq

DOI: https://doi.org/10.59429/ace.v8i4.5720

Keywords: Drugs, activated charcoal, Adsorption, Isotherms, Kinetic

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Abstract

This research investigates the use of activated carbon from Iraqi date pits as a novel and sustainable adsorbent for removing three key pharmaceutical drugs: sulfanilamide, sulfisoxazole, and amoxicillin, from contaminated water. The study systematically evaluated crucial factors like equilibrium time, adsorbent dosage, pH, and temperature to optimize the drug removal process. To understand the underlying mechanisms, various adsorption isotherm models were tested, with the (Freundlich, Elovich and Timken) where values range between (0.931, 0.9359 and 0.8867) model proving to be the best fit. This suggests a multilayer adsorption process, where drug molecules form a single layer on the surface of the activated carbon. The investigation of thermodynamic parameters (∆G, ∆H, and ∆S) further confirmed that the adsorption process was spontaneous where values (-1036.74,-231.775and-534.019).In addition, kinetic studies demonstrated that the pseudo-second-order model provided the most accurate description of the adsorption process for all three drugs. This was supported by exceptionally high correlation coefficients (R2) = 0.9992 for sulfanilamide, 1 for sulfisoxazole, and 0.9995 for amoxicillin. In conclusion, the findings strongly affirm that activated carbon derived from Iraqi date pits is a highly promising, cost-effective, and sustainable adsorbent for treating water contaminated with pharmaceuticals. This work paves the way for the development of new, environmentally friendly materials for water purification.

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