Comparative study of the performance of chitosan and chitosan adsorbents modified with Fe3O4 to eliminate erythromycin from aqueous solutions

Excessive consumption of antibiotics and the entrance of the potentially hazardous substances to the environment has become one of the environmental concerns. Today, adsorption is one of the efficient and reliable methods for the removal of this class of compounds. The aim of this study was to synthesize chitosan-Fe3O4 and to compare the efficacy of removing erythromycin antibiotics from aqueous humorous media by this adsorbent and chitosan.
The structural properties of the synthesized adsorbent were analyzed by TEM, PSA, VSM techniques. Various parameters including pH (1-11), contact time (0-60 min), adsorbent concentration (1-5 g/L), and initial concentrations of erythromycin (5-50 mg/L) was evaluated for the removal efficiency. For data analysis, Excel software was used. The equilibrium constant and the kinetic constants were calculated from the first-order kinetic model using Freundlich and Langmuir isotherms.
The results indicated that increased pH and initial concentration of erythromycin increased the dose of adsorbents and the contact time of removal efficiency. The highest absorption efficiency at pH of 3 for both adsorbents, the contact time 30 min for modified chitosan and 50 min for chitosan, the dose of adsorbent 2 g/L for modified chitosan, and 3 g/L for chitosan and the initial concentration of erythromycin for each of the two adsorbents was 10 mg/L and the erythromycin adsorption by both adsorbents follows the Langmuir isotherm and the pseudo second order kinetics.
According to these results, chitosan modified with Fe3O4 can be used as a more effective adsorbent than chitosan for removal of erythromycin by adsorption method.