Kinetic and Equilibrium Sorption Studies of Ceftriaxone and Paracetamol by Surfactant-Modified Zeolite

Abstract

An organo-zeolite was prepared by loading hexadecyltrimethylammonium (HDTMA) onto clinoptilolite and was used to remove ceftriaxone sodium and paracetamol in aqueous solutions. Batch experiments were conducted to perform kinetics and sorption isotherms at 25 °C and 100 rpm. The results indicate that the equilibration times were 24 h for ceftriaxone sodium and 9 h for paracetamol. Furthermore, sorption capacities were 0.7288 and 0.0058 mg/g, respectively. The data were treatment with different models including pseudo first order, second order, and Elovich, the results suggested a chemical adsorption mechanism, and the adsorption equilibrium data for the two drugs show that they follow a linear trend, indicating a partitioning mechanism. Physicochemical properties such as solubility, log Kow, and pka play an important role in the adsorption process. Finally, the values obtained for zero charge point (ZPC) for zeolitic materials were 6.90, 6.94, and 6.90 for natural zeolite (ZN), sodium zeolite (ZNa), and zeolite modified surface at 30 mM HDTMA (ZMS-30), respectively.