Pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) are a representative class of emerging contaminants. This study aimed to investigate the PPCP removal performance and application safety of a biochar fabricated using the invasive plant Alternanthera philoxeroides (APBC). According to scanning electron microscopy and pore size analyses, APBC exhibited a porous structure with a specific surface area of 857.5 m2/g. A Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis indicated the presence of surface functional groups, including phosphorus-containing groups, C=O, C=C, and -OH. The adsorption experiment showed that the maximum removal efficiency of ibuprofen was 97% at an initial concentration of 10 mg/L and APBC dosage of 0.8 g/L. The adsorption kinetics were fitted by the pseudo-second-order model with the highest correlation coefficient (R2 = 0.9999). The adsorption isotherms were well described by the Freundlich model (R2 = 0.9896), which indicates a dominant multilayer adsorption. The maximum adsorption capacity of APBC was 172 mg/g. A toxicity evaluation, based on Chlorella pyrenoidosa and human epidermal BEAS-2B cells, was carried out using a spectrum analysis, thiazolyl blue tetrazolium bromide assay, and flow cytometry. The results of the above showed the low cytotoxicity of APBC and demonstrated its low toxicity in potential environmental applications.
Keywords: Alternanthera philoxeroides; Application safety; Biochar; Cytotoxicity; Ibuprofen removal.
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