In this study, an ultrasonic cavitation bubble-assisted adsorption method was developed to efficiently recover paclitaxel from cell-free culture supernatants of Taxus chinensis using Diaion HP-20. The equilibrium adsorption data were fitted to the Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin, and Dubinin-Radushkevich isotherm models. The Langmuir adsorption model was the best fit for the adsorption of paclitaxel with and without ultrasound. As the adsorption temperature and ultrasonic power increased, the adsorption capacity and rate constant increased, and the intraparticle diffusion resistance decreased. The thermodynamic parameters revealed that the adsorption was endothermic, irreversible, and spontaneous. As the surface loading increased, the isosteric heat of adsorption steadily increased, indicating that the adsorbent has an energetically heterogeneous surface.
