Evaluating the Performance of Ball-Milled Silk Fibroin Films for Simultaneous Adsorption of Eight Pharmaceuticals from Water

Hlobsile Kgomo (), Simiso Dube () and Mathew Muzi Nindi
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Hlobsile Kgomo: Department of Chemistry, University of South Africa, Florida Campus, Cnr Christiaan de Wet Rd & Pioneer Avenue, Florida Park, Roodepoort 1709, South Africa
Simiso Dube: Department of Chemistry, University of South Africa, Florida Campus, Cnr Christiaan de Wet Rd & Pioneer Avenue, Florida Park, Roodepoort 1709, South Africa
Mathew Muzi Nindi: Institute for Nanotechnology and Water Sustainability, College of Science Engineering and Technology, University of South Africa, Corner Christiaan de Wet and Pioneer Avenue, Florida Park, Roodepoort 1709, South Africa

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 22, 1-17

Abstract: Pollutants mainly exist as multicomponent mixtures in the environment. Therefore, it is necessary to synthesize low-cost adsorbents that can simultaneously adsorb multiple compounds. This work presents the prospect of the adsorption of multiclass pharmaceuticals from the aqueous environment using an adsorbent derived from silk fibroin of the wild silkworm Argema mimosae . The adsorbent was prepared by dissolving degummed silk fibroin and the resultant solution was cast to obtain films that were ball-milled to powder. FTIR results revealed bands corresponding to N-H and C=O stretching vibrations. Particle size distribution data generally showed two size groups in the range of 50–90 nm and 250–625 nm. The study focused on the adsorptive removal of multiple compounds consisting of eight pharmaceuticals representing various classes including a β-blocker (pindolol), anesthetic (lidocaine), stimulant (caffeine), antiviral (nevirapine), steroid (estriol), anti-epileptic (carbamazepine), and a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (naproxen). The adsorption process was best fitted to the pseudo-second-order isotherm and an overall match to the Freundlich model. Thermodynamic parameters suggested that the process was mainly exothermic and more spontaneous at lower temperatures. The performance of the adsorbent was further evaluated using environmental waters and the adsorbent demonstrated good potential for simultaneous adsorption of multicomponent pharmaceuticals.

Keywords: A. mimosae; silk; films; adsorption; pharmaceuticals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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