Removal of Acetaminophen Drug from Wastewater by Fe₃O₄ and ZSM-5 Materials

Abstract

Adsorption of toxic compounds from water using zeolites and magnetite was developed due to the various advantages of their applicability. In the last twenty years, the use of zeolite-based compositions in the form of zeolite/inorganic or zeolite/polymer and magnetite has been accelerated for the adsorption of emergent compounds from water sources. The main adsorption mechanisms using zeolite and magnetite nanomaterials are high surface adsorption, ion exchange capacity and electrostatic interaction. This paper shows the capacity of Fe3O4 and ZSM-5 nanomaterials of adsorbing the emerging pollutant acetaminophen (paracetamol) during the treatment of wastewater. The efficiencies of the Fe3O4 and ZSM-5 in the wastewater process were systematically investigated using adsorption kinetics. During the study, the concentration of acetaminophen in the wastewater was varied from 50 to 280 mg/L, and the maximum Fe3O4 adsorption capacity increased from 25.3 to 68.9 mg/g. The adsorption capacity of each studied material was performed for three pH values (4, 6, 8) of the wastewater. Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models were used to characterize acetaminophen adsorption on Fe3O4 and ZSM-5 materials. The highest efficiencies in the treatment of wastewater were obtained at a pH value of 6. Fe3O4 nanomaterial presented a higher removal efficiency (84.6%) compared to ZSM-5 nanomaterial (75.4%). The results of the experiments show that both materials have a potential to be used as an effective adsorbents for the removal of acetaminophen from wastewater.

Keywords

• acetaminophen
• Fe₃O₄
• ZSM-5
• adsorption
• capacity isotherms