Evaluation of Synthesized Fe3O4/MWCNTs Nanocomposite Used in the Heterogeneous Fenton Process for the Removal of Ciprofloxacin Antibiotic

Ciprofloxacin is an antibiotic vastly administrered for the treatment of infections. A major paortion of the drug remains non-metabolized and is excreted to find its way ultimately into water environments through discharge into wastewater. Although carbon nanotubes have been widely employed for the removal of contaminants, ciprofloxacin still poses problems against its proper removal. It is the objective of the present study to synthesize magnetite Fe3O4/MWCNTs and to evaluate its performance in ciprofloxacin removal via the heterogeneous Fenton process. For this purpose, the performance of the synthesized nanocomposite was evaluated while the effects of the following parameters were also investigated on the heterogenous Fenton process under lab conditions: pH, 4‒10); adsorbent quantity, 1‒3 g/l; initial antibiotic concentration, 30‒200 mg/l; contact time, 15‒300 min; and H2O2 concentration, 5‒25 μmol/l. Moreover, the synthesized Fe3O4/MWCNTs was morphologically and microstructurally characterized using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) while the formation of carboxylic functional groups was verified by Fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR). It was found that the efficiency of the heterogeneous Fenton process for the removal of ciprofloxacin at a concentration of 30 mg/l was 95% in approximately 180 minutes and a molar ratio of 1 ml H2O2/2g Fe. Based on the results obtained, the Fe3O4/MWCNTs magnetite nanocomposite is well capable of removing ciprofloxacin from aqueous solutions in the heterogeneous Fenton process.