Synthesis of Magnesium Oxide Nanoparticles and Their Application in Removal of Tetracycline Antibiotic from Aqueous Solutions

Magnesium oxide is one of the alkaline earth metal oxides which due to its catalytic properties has been widely used in the analysis of hazardous chemicals. The main purpose of this study was to remove tetracycline antibiotics using magnesium nano oxide.

In this study, magnesium oxide nanoparticles were synthesized in the presence of cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide. Synthesized nanoparticles were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermal analysis (TGA), transmission microscopic analysis (TEM), particle size distribution analysis (DLS), infrared radiation analysis (FTIR) and electron diffraction (FES) electron microscopy (FES). In the next step, the efficiency of the synthesized nanoparticles in the batch system was investigated by changing one parameter and keeping the other parameters constant in removal of the tetracycline antibiotic.

Increasing the pH from 3 to 7 caused efficiency increase, but decreased again to pH = 11. As the contact time increases, the efficiency increases. This increase was steepest for 60 minutes and is almost constant after 60 minutes. According to other available concentrations,the contact time of  60 minutes was chosen as the optimum time. The efficiency without the presence of interfering ions in optimum condition was 81.68%. By adding the interfering ions the efficiency at the lowest concentration level of the interferers was 62.29% (nitrate), 40.11% (sulfate), 55.32% (Cu) and 43.56% (fluoride) decreased. The highest reduction was obtained with sulfate ion at 300 ppm which showed an efficiency of 15%.

The results of this study showed that MgO adsorbent can efficiently remove tetracycline contaminants from water resources.