Simultaneous adsorption of tetracycline, amoxicillin, and ciprofloxacin by pistachio shell powder coated with zinc oxide nanoparticles

A new adsorbent formed from pistachio shell powder that was coated with ZnO nanoparticles (CPS) was examined in terms of simultaneous adsorption of tetracycline (TEC), amoxicillin (AMO), and ciprofloxacin (CIP) from an aqueous solution. Initially, the characterization properties of a CPS-like surface morphology, functional groups, and structure were obtained using advanced analysis of TEM, SEM, XRD, EDS, and FT-IR. Post coating with ZnO nanoparticles, several surface and structural characteristics relating to the adsorption ability of the pistachio shell were significantly improved. The correlation of the kinetic data by a pseudo second-order model was successful for three antibiotics. High compatibility resulted between the TEC and CIP isotherm data and the Fruendlich model. However, the Langmuir model produced a better fit to the AMO isotherm curves. In addition, its spontaneous and exothermic nature was the main feature for the adsorption process of the three antibiotics onto CPS. Through the results, the chemical adsorption has been governed by the AMO, CIP, and TEC reaction onto the homogeneous and heterogeneous sites of CPS surfaces. The CPS exhibited a highest adsorption capacity for AMO (132.240 mg/g), then for TEC (98.717 mg/g), and CIP (92.450 mg/g). These results place CPS one among the highly efficient adsorbents that can be used to eradicate wastewater containing antibiotics.