Abatement of Amoxicillin, Ampicillin, and Chloramphenicol from Aqueous solutions using activated carbon prepared from grape slurry

Abstract

The adsorption of amoxicillin (AMX), ampicillin (AMP), and chloramphenicol (CHLR) from simulated antibiotic-contaminated water using adsorbents prepared from grape slurry waste is studied. Batch adsorption experiments are carried out to evaluate the adsorption capacity of the adsorbents for AMX, AMP, and CHLR. Adsorption isotherms are described by the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms, while the pseudo-second order kinetics describe the sorption processes. Negative values of the enthalpy change show that the sorption processes are exothermic, and the positive values of the Gibbs free energy change indicates non-spontaneous but feasible nature of the adsorption. The study shows that grape slurry waste could be a good precursor to prepare effective adsorbents for the remediation of antibiotic-contaminated wastewater.