Competitive Adsorption of Drugs from a Multi-Component Mixture on Sugarcane Bagasse

Abstract

This work examines the adsorption in single- and multi-solute adsorption experiments of antibiotic and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, i.e., ciprofloxacin (CPX), sulfamethoxazole (SMX), ibuprofen (IBU), and diclofenac (DCF), onto sugarcane bagasse. The maximum experimental adsorption capacities of single components CPX, DCF, IBU, and SMX, were 0.98, 0.77, 0.61, and 0.51 mg/g, respectively, with decreases between 5 and 28% in multi-solute mixtures, assuming competitive adsorption. The experimental data of a single drug fitted a pseudo-second-order model, while the experimental isotherms fit the Freundlich model. The presence of CPX did not interfere with the adsorption of other solutes. The adsorption of SMX was lower in the presence of adsorption competitors than SMX single solution. The adsorption of binary systems adequately fitted the Sheindorf–Rebhun–Sheintuch model. The results showed that the competition process depends on each adsorbate and that sugarcane bagasse can adsorb drugs in multi-component systems.