Synthesis and Characterization of a Magnetic Carbon Nanofiber Derived from Bacterial Cellulose for the Removal of Diclofenac from Water

Pimchanok Ieamviteevanich; Ehsan Daneshvar; Ghada Eshaq; Liisa Puro; Wiyada Mongkolthanaruk; Supree Pinitsoontorn; Amit Bhatnagar

doi:10.1021/acsomega.1c06022

Synthesis and Characterization of a Magnetic Carbon Nanofiber Derived from Bacterial Cellulose for the Removal of Diclofenac from Water

ACS Omega. 2022 Feb 24;7(9):7572-7584. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.1c06022. eCollection 2022 Mar 8.

Authors

Pimchanok Ieamviteevanich^{1

2}, Ehsan Daneshvar¹, Ghada Eshaq^{1

3}, Liisa Puro⁴, Wiyada Mongkolthanaruk⁵, Supree Pinitsoontorn^{2

6}, Amit Bhatnagar¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Separation Science, LUT School of Engineering Science, LUT University, Sammonkatu 12, FI-50130 Mikkeli, Finland.
² Materials Science and Nanotechnology Program, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand.
³ Petrochemicals Department, Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute, Nasr City, Cairo 11727, Egypt.
⁴ Department of Separation Science, LUT School of Engineering Science, LUT University, FI-53850 Lappeenranta, Finland.
⁵ Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand.
⁶ Institute of Nanomaterials Research and Innovation for Energy (IN-RIE), Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand.

Abstract

Engineering and synthesis of novel materials are vital for removing emerging pollutants, such as pharmaceuticals from contaminated water. In this study, a magnetic carbon nanofiber (MCF) fabricated from bacterial cellulose was tested for the adsorption of diclofenac from water. The physical and chemical properties of the synthesized adsorbent were examined by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), field emission transmission electron microscopy (FETEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), Raman spectroscopy, and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The characterization results showed that the MCF is a carbon nanofiber with a three-dimensional interconnect network, forming a porous material (mesopores and macropores) with a specific surface area of 222.3 m²/g. The removal of diclofenac (10 mg/L) by the MCF (0.75 g/L) was efficient (93.2%) and fast (in 20 min). According to the Langmuir isotherm model fitting, the maximum adsorption capacity of the MCF was 43.56 mg/g. Moreover, continuous adsorption of diclofenac onto MCF was investigated in a fixed-bed column, and the maximum adsorption capacity was found to be 67 mg/g. The finding of this research revealed that the MCF could be a promising adsorbent used to remove diclofenac from water, while it can be easily recovered by magnetic separation.