Influence of sulfamethazine (SMT) on the adsorption of antimony by the black soil: Implication for the complexation between SMT and antimony

Yurui Fan; Chunli Zheng; Zishen Lin; Aidi Huo; Risheng Li; Chi He

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143318

Influence of sulfamethazine (SMT) on the adsorption of antimony by the black soil: Implication for the complexation between SMT and antimony

Sci Total Environ. 2021 Mar 15:760:143318. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143318. Epub 2020 Nov 12.

Authors

Yurui Fan¹, Chunli Zheng², Zishen Lin¹, Aidi Huo³, Risheng Li⁴, Chi He¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, PR China.
² Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, PR China; Key Laboratory of Thermo-Fluid Science and Engineering, Ministry of Education, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, PR China; State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, CAS, Xi'an, PR China. Electronic address: clzheng@mail.xjtu.edu.cn.
³ Key Laboratory of Subsurface Hydrology and Ecological Effects in Arid Region of the Ministry of Education, Chang'an University, Xi'an 710054, PR China; School of Water and Environment, Chang'an University, Xi'an 710054, PR China; State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, CAS, Xi'an, PR China. Electronic address: huoaidi@chd.edu.cn.
⁴ Institute of Land Engineering and Technology, Shaanxi Provincial Land Engineering Construction Group Co., Ltd, Xi'an, PR China.

PMID: 33223156
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143318

Abstract

This paper reported when sulfamethazine (SMT) and antimony (Sb(V)) coexisted in aqueous solution at pH of 3.0, 5.0 and 7.0, the complexation between SMT and Sb(V) occurred. Such a complexation impeded the adsorption of Sb(V) on the black soil. The higher the solution pH value was, the more the amount of Sb(V) was prevented from adsorbing on the black soil. The maximum adsorption capacity (q_m) of Sb(V) at the presence of SMT under pH of 3.0, 5.0 and 7.0 was 5.28, 3.45 and 1.95 mg/g, respectively. -NH₂, NH, SO and CN of pyrimidine ring carried by SMT acted as the complexation sites with Sb(V). The complexation constant K were - 3.15, -3.26 and - 3.48 at pH of 7.0, 5.0 and 3.0, respectively, indicating that the complexation strength between SMT and Sb(V) followed the order of pH 7.0 > pH 5.0 > pH 3.0. The binding energy between Sb(V) and the CN group of pyrimidine ring was the highest (1.42 eV), and then followed by the groups of -NH (1.37 eV), SO (0.66 eV) and -NH₂ (0.39 eV). Besides SO and CN, Sb(V) tends to complex with NH via coordination bond at pH of 7.0 while -NH₂ via cation-π interaction at pH 3.0 and 5.0. Compared to pH of 5.0, the strength of cation-π interaction at pH of 3.0 weakened according to the molecular electrostatic potential map. These results demonstrated that different from the situation where Sb(V) exists in aqueous solution alone, the coexistence of SMT with Sb(V) affected the adsorption behavior of Sb(V) in soil and solution pH was also an influence factor. These findings in this paper would be helpful for further understanding the mobility, bioavailability and other environmental behavior of Sb(V) in soil when Sb(V) coexists with antibiotics even other organic compounds.

Keywords: Adsorption; Antimony(V); Complexation; Soil; Sulfamethazine.