In recent years, concerns have been raised about the occurrence of active raw materials and pharmaceutical ingredients that may be present in water, including wastewater, in the pharmaceutical industry. Wastewater treatment methods are not enough to completely remove active pharmaceuticals and other waste; thus, this study aims to assess the use of a multiwall carbon nanotube after derivatization and magnetization as a new and renewable absorbent for removing ibuprofen from an aqueous medium. The adsorbents were prepared by first oxidizing a multiwall carbon nanotube and then deriving the oxidized product with hydroxyl amine (m-MWCNT–HA), hydrazine (m-MWCNT–HYD), and amino acid (m-MWCNT–CYS). Adsorbents were characterized by Raman spectroscopy, Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM and TEM), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area analysis (BET), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). Batch adsorption studies were conducted to study the effects of pH, temperature, time, and initial concentration of the adsorbate. Adsorption isotherm, kinetics, and thermodynamics studies were also conducted. The results show that the optimal pH for nearly complete removal of Ibu in a short time at room temperature was 4 for three adsorbents. The adsorption followed the Langmuir isotherm model with pseudo-second-order kinetics. The percentage of removal of ibuprofen reached up to 98.4%, 93%, and 61.5% for m-MWCNT–CYS, m-MWCNT–HYD, and m-MWCNT–HA respectively. To the best of our knowledge, the grafted MWCNTs presented in this work comprise the first example in the literature of oxidized MWCNT modified with such functionalities and applied for ibuprofen removal.

Water purification from toxic metals was the main objective of this work. A composite in film form was prepared from the biomaterials hydroxyapatite, chitosan and glycerol using the dissolution/recrystallization method. A nanoparticle-based film with a homogenous and smooth surface was produced. The results of total reflectance infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA/DTA) demonstrated the presence of a substantial physical force between composite components. The composite was tested for its ability to absorb Cd²⁺ and Zn²⁺ ions from aqueous solutions. Cd²⁺ and Zn²⁺ adsorption mechanisms are fit using the Langmuir model and the pseudo-second-order model. Thermodynamic parameters indicated that Cd²⁺ and Zn²⁺ ion adsorption onto the composite surface is spontaneous and preferred at neutral pH and temperatures somewhat higher than room temperature. The adsorption studies showed that the maximum adsorption capacity of the HAp/CTs bio-composite membrane for Cd²⁺ and Zn²⁺ ions was in the order of cadmium (120 mg/g) > Zinc (90 mg/g) at an equilibrium time of 20 min and a temperature of 25 °C. The results obtained on the physico-chemical properties of nanocomposite membranes and their sorption capacities offer promising potential for industrial and biological activities.

Graphene oxide–chitosan composites are attracting considerable interest as an eco-friendly adsorbent material for most aquatic environmental pollutants. Today, the focus is on the emerging applications of 2D and 3D graphene functionalized with chitosan to enhance its mechanical properties and adsorption efficiency. Herein, the super adsorbent 3D graphene functionalized with chitosan (3D GF-CS) is synthesized to remove sulfamethazine, (SMZ) as a model aquatic antibiotic pharmaceutical. The synthesized materials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray photon spectroscopy (XPS), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), and Raman spectroscopy. After that, adsorption experiments were conducted for SMZ adsorption to find out the optimized adsorption parameters, such as pH, temperature, contact time, initial antibiotic concentration, and adsorbent dosage. The results show the optimal adsorption parameters were as pH of 7, temperature of 25°C, initial antibiotic concentration Ci of 50 ppm. Also, the kinetics, isotherms models, and thermodynamics parameters of SMZ adsorption were studied. The experimental results revealed to be best suited by both the pseudo-second-order kinetic and the Freundlich isotherm model compared with other isotherm models. The thermodynamics parameters demonstrated that the adsorption is exothermic, exhibiting higher adsorption efficiency at lower temperature. In addition, Gibb’s free energy suggested the adsorption to be spontaneous as well as entropy indication of the loss of disorder. Furthermore, the regeneration of 3D GF-CS was utilized in ten consecutive cycles, and the SMZ adsorption capacity did not decline significantly. Additionally, this research studied the adsorption energies and how sulfamethazine adsorbs onto 3D GF-CS was determined by applying the density-functional–based tight binding (DFTB) and Monte Carlo simulations at different adsorption positions. The chemical reactivity (local and global) of the free drug was investigated using the density functional theory (DFT), namely, the B3LYP and PBEPBE functionals with the 6–31+G (d, p) basis set in the gas phase and aqueous solution.

The goal of this work was to develop polymer-based heterocycle for water purification from toxic pesticides such as difenoconazole. The polymer chosen for this purpose was cellulose nanocrystalline (CNC); two cellulose based heterocycles were prepared by crosslinking with 2,6-pyridine dicarbonyl dichloride (Cell-X), and derivatizing with 2-furan carbonyl chloride (Cell-D). The synthesized cellulose-based heterocycles were characterized by SEM, proton NMR, TGA and FT-IR spectroscopy. To optimize adsorption conditions, the effect of various variable such as time, adsorbent dose, pH, temperature, and difenoconazole initial concentration were evaluated. Results showed that, the maximum difenoconazole removal percentage was about 94.7%, and 96.6% for Cell-X and Cell-D, respectively. Kinetic and thermodynamic studies on the adsorption process showed that the adsorption of difenoconazole by the two polymers is a pseudo-second order and follows the Langmuir isotherm model. The obtained values of ∆G ° and ∆H suggest that the adsorption process is spontaneous at room temperature. The results showed that Cell-X could be a promising adsorbent on a commercial scale for difenoconazole. The several adsorption sites present in Cell-X in addition to the semi crown ether structure explains the high efficiency it has for difenoconazole, and could be used for other toxic pesticides. Monte Carlo (MC) and Molecular Dynamic (MD) simulation were performed on a model of Cell-X and difenoconazole, and the results showed strong interaction.

Yatta is a town located nine kilometers south of Hebron city in the West Bank of Palestine. The town houses over 100,000 people of which 49% are females and has a population that doubles every 15 years. Yatta has been connected to a water network since 1974 serving nearly 85% of its households. The water network is old and inadequate to meet the needs of the population. Water supply made available to the area is limited, estimated at 20 L/capita/day. Residents are thus forced to rely on water vendors who supply water that is 400% more expensive with a lower quality compared to municipal water. Therefore, rainwater harvesting is a common practice in the area, with the majority of households owning at least one cistern. Rainwater harvesting is of great socio-economic importance in areas where water sources are scarce and/or polluted. In this research, the quality of harvested rainwater used for drinking and domestic purposes in Yatta was assessed throughout one year. A total of 100 samples were collected from cisterns with an average capacity of 69 m³, which are adjacent to cement-roof catchment areas of 145 m² average surface area. Samples were analyzed for a number of parameters including temperature, pH, alkalinity, hardness, turbidity, total dissolved solids, NO₃, NH₄, chloride and salinity. Results showed that most of the rainwater samples were within World Health Organization (WHO) and Environment Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines for chemical parameters. Microbiological contents such as total Coliforms and faecal Coliforms bacteria were tested. The research also addressed the impact of rainwater harvesting systems on different socio-economic attributes of the local community through a questionnaire that had been filled out before any sample was collected.

Background: Human and veterinary antibiotics are typically discharged as parent chemicals in urine or feces and are known to be released into the environment via wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Several research investigations have recently been conducted on the removal and bioremediation of pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) disposed of in wastewater. Results: SiNP-Cu, a chelating matrix, was produced by delaying and slowing 1.5-dimethyl-1H-pyrazole-3-carbaldehyde on silica gel from functionalized with 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane. The prepared sorbent material was characterized using several techniques including BET surface area, FT-IR spectroscopy, Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and nitrogen adsorption–desorption isotherm. The pseudo-second-order model provided the best correlation due to the big match between the experimental and theoretical of different adsorption coefficients. The Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption models were used and the study showed a better match with the Freundlich model with a capacity of removal reached up to 420 mg g⁻¹. The removal capacity was dependent on pH and increased by increasing pH. The removal percentage reached 91;5% at pH = 8. The adsorbent demonstrated a high percentage removal of TMP, reaching more than 94% when increased pH. The sample was simply regenerated by soaking it for a few minutes in 1 N HCl and drying it. The sorbent was repeated five times with no discernible decrease in removal capacity. The thermodynamic study also showed endothermic, increasing randomness and not spontaneous. The free energy was 2.71 kJ/mol at 320 K. The findings of the DFT B3LYP/6–31 + g (d, p) local reactivity descriptors revealed that nitrogen atoms and π-electrons of the benzene and pyrimidine rings in the TMP are responsible for the adsorption process with the SiNP surface. The negative values of the adsorption energies obtained by molecular dynamic simulation indicated the spontaneity of the adsorption process. Conclusion: The global reactivity indices prove that TMP is stable and it can be removed from wastewater using SiNP surface. The results of the local reactivity indices concluded that the active centers for the adsorption process are the nitrogen atoms and the π-electrons of the pyrimidine and benzene rings. Furthermore, the positive value of the maximum charge transfer number (ΔN) proves that TMP has a great tendency to donate electrons to SiNP surface during the process of adsorption.