Amoxicillin type Amox-500 is a β-lactam antibiotic belonging to the penicillin family, used to treat infections caused by bacteria. This drug has been, purified by the slow recrystallization method and characterized by RAMAN. The treatment of antibiotic-laden effluent is of interest for...

This study focuses on the preparation and characterization of activated carbon derived from Argan paste cake through carbonization at 300 °C followed by activation at 800 °C, utilizing KOH as the activation agent with a ratio of 1:1. The objective of this research is to compare the adsorption capacity of the obtained sample, referred to as APC-300-800, with a commercially available granular activated carbon (GAC) purchased from Aquasorb. The preparation involved various characterization techniques such as BET (Brunauer–Emmett–Teller) analysis, XRD (X-ray diffraction), and SEM (scanning electron microscopy). BET analysis revealed that APC-300-800 exhibited a high surface area of 1937 m²/g. Subsequently, adsorption tests were conducted, leading to the observation that APC-300-800 conforms to the second pseudo-order kinetic model, and the adsorption of paracetamol can be accurately described by the Dubinin–Radushkevich isotherm model, exhibiting an R² value of 0.89665. The maximum adsorption capacity of paracetamol on APC-300-800, as determined by the Langmuir model, was found to be 344.82 mg/g. Additionally, thermodynamic studies revealed that the adsorption process on APC-300-800 was primarily governed by physisorption, while for GAC, it was attributed to chemisorption. These findings highlight the potential of APC-300-800 as an efficient adsorbent for water treatment applications, showcasing its favorable adsorption characteristics compared to commercially available alternatives.

Mediterranean countries experience a large production of olive oil, thus generating huge quantities of non-biodegradable vegetation waters. The discharge of these effluents into aquatic environments seriously affects the quality of surface waters. This study investigated the potential use of carbon steel slag (SS) as an adsorbent and improver for reducing olive mill wastewater (OMWW) toxicity. The elemental and structural characterization of SS was carried out using inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP/EOS), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis. OMWW characterization indicated that the effluent was acidic in nature, with a pH of 4.8, a higher conductivity reaching 14.92 mS/cm, higher COD of 157.31 g/L, rich in organic matter 112.33 g/L, and total phenolic compounds of 11.13 g/L. The neutralization capacity of SS was demonstrated by reducing the OMWW’s acidic character. Afterward, the adsorption of tannic acid (TA) was investigated using SS. Parameters such as contact time, initial TA concentration, adsorbent dosage, pH, and temperature were investigated. The kinetic study indicated that the adsorption of TA onto SS fitted well with the second pseudo-order (r = 0.99) and Elovich (r = 0.98) models, indicating that the adsorption of TA was mainly chemical and depends on the reactions of oxide hydrolysis and hydroxides dissolution. Moreover, Langmuir isotherm has greatly described the adsorption of TA on SS (R = 0.997), suggesting that the surface of SS is homogenous, and the adsorption occurs mainly in monolayer. The maximum adsorption capacity reached 714.28 mg/g, indicating the higher capacity of SS to reduce the polyphenolic compounds in OMWW. This study demonstrated that SS residue from the steelmaking industry could present a highly interesting material for OMWW remediation.