Albendazole is a broad-spectrum anthelmintic drug effective against gastrointestinal parasites in humans and animals. Despite the fact that it has been detected in environment (water, sediment and soil), there is no information on its fate in the environment. So, in order to understand the sorption process of albendazole in environment, the sorption mechanism and kinetic properties were investigated through sorption equilibrium and sorption rate experiments. For that purpose, batch sorption of albendazole on five sediment samples and five soil samples from Croatia's region with different physico-chemical properties was investigated. Except physico-chemical properties of used environmental solid samples, the effects of various parameters such as contact time, initial concentration, ionic strength and pH on the albendazole sorption were studied. The Kd parameter from linear sorption model was determined by linear regression analysis, while the Freundlich and Langmuir sorption models were applied to describe the equilibrium isotherms. The estimated Kd values varied from 29.438 to 104.43 mLg-1 at 0.01 M CaCl2 and for natural pH value of albendazole solution (pH 6.6). Experimental data showed that the best agreement was obtained with the linear model (R2 > 0.99), while the rate of albendazole sorption is the best described with the kinetic model of pseudo-second-order. Obtained results point to a medium or even strong sorption of albendazole for soil or sediment particles, which is particularly dependent on the proportion of organic matter, pH, copper and zinc in them.
Keywords: Albendazole; Ionic strength; Kinetic study; Sediment and soil; Sorption isotherm; pH.
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