Iron-Trimesic Metal Organic Frameworks as Nano-Adsorbents for Tetracycline and Ceftriaxone Contaminated Wastewater Effluents

Antibiotics release has been identified as a series concern with adverse effects on the ecosystem. Nano-adsorbents are promising materials to remove antibiotics from wastewater effluents. In this work, iron-trimesic metal organic frameworks (Fe-BTC MOF) was synthesized and characterized by XRD, FTIR, SEM and TEM. Fe-BTC was then investigated as nanoadsorbent for tetracycline (TC) and Ceftriaxone sodium (CFTR) antibiotics. TC and CFTR are common antibiotics, which are extensively used by industrial activities and thereby are released to wastewater effluents. Fe-BTC MOF showed high adsorption capacity of 713 and 1284.6 mg/g for TC and CFTR respectively. This study aims to compares the uptake efficiencies for two drug residues. Single antibiotic residues adsorption tests showed that Fe-BTC MOF effectively takes up TC more than CFTR. The influence of pH, dose, concentration and time on the adsorption process was estimated. Such adsorption capacity of Fe-BTC will make it favorable for further environmental applications.