In this study, the residual pods of the forest species Erythrina speciosa were carbonized with ZnCl2 to obtain porous activated carbon and investigated for the adsorptive removal of the drug paracetamol (PCM) from water. The PCM adsorption onto activated carbon is favored at acidic solution pH. The isothermal studies confirmed that increasing the temperature from 298 to 328 K decreased the adsorption capacity from 65 mg g-1 to 50.4 mg g-1 (C0 = 175 mg L-1). The Freundlich model showed a better fit of the equilibrium isotherms. Thermodynamic studies confirmed the exothermic nature (ΔH0 = -39.1066 kJ mol-1). Kinetic data indicates that the external mass transfer occurs in the first minutes followed by the surface diffusion, considering that the linear driving force model described the experimental data. The application of the material in the treatment of a simulated effluent with natural conditions was promising, presenting a removal of 76.45%. Therefore, it can be concluded that the application of residual pods of the forest species Erythrina speciosa carbonized with ZnCl2 is highly efficient in the removal of the drug paracetamol and also in mixtures containing other pharmaceutical substances.
Keywords: Adsorption of pollutants; Drug removal; Emergent pollutants; Residual pod.
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