Poly(acrylamide-co-itaconic acid) as a Potential Ion-Exchange Sorbent for Effective Removal of Antibiotic Drug-Ciprofloxacin from Aqueous Solution

This study describes equilibrium and kinetic sorption studies to remove the antibiotic drug Ciprofloxacin (CF) from aqueous solutions using poly(acrylamide-co-itaconic acid) poly(AAm-co-IA)] as polymeric cation exchanger sorbent material. The co-polymeric sorbent was prepared by free radical induced aqueous polymerization and was characterized by FTIR spectroscopy and TGA analysis. In addition, its physicochemical parameters were also determined. The various isotherm models, when applied to equilibrium sorption data at 28°C, followed the following order: Langmuir > Temkin > Freundlich, with the fair maximum sorption capacity (Q _o ) of 178.5 mg g^?1. The kinetic sorption data, obtained at 28°C, was applied to kinetic models such as pseudo first order equation, pseudo second order model and a simple Elovich model. Based on regression values, the order of fitness of these models was pseudo second order > pseudo first order > simple Elovich model. The second order adsorption coefficients k_2adswere found to be 58 × 10^?3, 52.7 × 10^?3, 34.01×10^?3 g/mg min for drug solutions with initial concentrations of 10, 20 and 30 mg L^?1 respectively The sorption mean free energy from the Dubinin–Raduschkevich (DR) isotherm was found to be nearly 8.839 kJ mol^?1 indicating an ion-exchange mechanism for drug uptake. The optimum pH value of sorbate solution for drug uptake was found to be around 6.0. Finally, the antibacterial action of drug was investigated and it was found that after adsorption there was a decrease in bacterial growth inhibition efficiency of drug solution.