title: Adsorption of emerging contaminant metformin using graphene oxide.
abstract: The occurrence of emerging contaminants in our water resources poses potential threats to the livings. Due to the poor treatment in wastewater management, treatment technologies are needed to effectively remove these products for living organism safety. In this study, Graphene oxide (GO) was tested for the first time for its capacity to remove a kind of emerging wastewater contaminants, metformin. The research was conducted by using a series of systematic adsorption and kinetic experiments. The results indicated that GO could rapidly and efficiently reduce the concentration of metformin, which could provide a solution in handling this problem. The uptake of metformin on the graphene oxide was strongly dependent on temperature, pH, ionic strength, and background electrolyte. The adsorption kinetic experiments revealed that almost 80% removal of metformin was achieved within 20 min for all the doses studied, corresponding to the relatively high k1(0.232 min-1) and k2(0.007 g mg-1min-1) values in the kinetic models. It indicated that the highest adsorption capacity in the investigated range (qm) of GO for metformin was at pH 6.0 and 288 K. Thermodynamic study indicated that the adsorption was a spontaneous (ΔG0< 0) and exothermic (ΔH0< 0) process. The adsorption of metformin increased when the pH values changed from 4.0 to 6.0, and decreased adsorption were observed at pH 6.0-11.0. GO still exhibited excellent adsorption capacity after several desorption/adsorption cycles. Besides, both so-called π-π interactions and hydrogen bonds might be mainly responsible for the adsorption of metformin onto GO.
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, PR China; Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control (Hunan University), Ministry of Education, Changsha 410082, PR China.
authors.forename: Shuai
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, PR China; Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control (Hunan University), Ministry of Education, Changsha 410082, PR China. Electronic address: liuyunguo_hnu@163.com.
authors.forename: Yun-Guo
authors.initials: YG
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: School of Architecture and Art, Central South University, Changsha 410082, PR China; School of Metallurgy and Environment, Central South University, Changsha 410083, PR China. Electronic address: liushaobo23@aliyun.com.
authors.forename: Shao-Bo
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, PR China; Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control (Hunan University), Ministry of Education, Changsha 410082, PR China.
authors.forename: Guang-Ming
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, PR China; Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control (Hunan University), Ministry of Education, Changsha 410082, PR China.
authors.forename: Lu-Hua
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, PR China; Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control (Hunan University), Ministry of Education, Changsha 410082, PR China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Fei
authors.initials: XF
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, PR China; Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control (Hunan University), Ministry of Education, Changsha 410082, PR China.
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, PR China; Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control (Hunan University), Ministry of Education, Changsha 410082, PR China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, PR China; Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control (Hunan University), Ministry of Education, Changsha 410082, PR China.
authors.forename: Ting-Ting
authors.initials: TT
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, PR China; Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control (Hunan University), Ministry of Education, Changsha 410082, PR China.
authors.forename: Chun-Ping
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D006108:Graphite / Q000737:chemistry*; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D007700:Kinetics; D008687:Metformin / Q000737:chemistry*; D009994:Osmolar Concentration; D010087:Oxides / Q000737:chemistry; D013696:Temperature; D013816:Thermodynamics; D062065:Wastewater / Q000737:chemistry; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D006108:Graphite; D008687:Metformin; D010087:Oxides; D062065:Wastewater; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Adsorption; Emerging contaminants; Graphene oxide; Metformin; Pharmaceutical