Adsorption of Methylene Blue and Tetracycline by Zeolites Immobilized on a PBAT Electrospun Membrane

ESTEVEZ-ARECO, SANTIAGO; ALICIA VERGARA-RUBIO; GOYANES, SILVIA; PICÓN BORREGALES, DAVID EMMANUEL; SILVINA CERVENY

MOLECULES

MOLECULAR DIVERSITY PRESERVATION INTERNATIONAL-MDPI

Año: 2022 vol. 28

1420-3049

first_pagesettingsOrder Article ReprintsThis is an early access version, the complete PDF, HTML, and XML versions will be available soon.Open AccessArticleAdsorption of Methylene Blue and Tetracycline by Zeolites Immobilized on a PBAT Electrospun Membraneby David Picón 1,2,Alicia Vergara-Rubio 2,3,Santiago Estevez-Areco 4,Silvina Cerveny 5,6ORCID andSilvia Goyanes 1,2,*ORCID1Laboratorio de Polímeros y Materiales Compuestos (LP&MC), Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Universitaria (C1428EGA), Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires B1428, Argentina2Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires (IFIBA), CONICET?Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Universitaria (C1428EGA), Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires B1428, Argentina3IIIA-UNSAM-CONICET, Instituto de Investigación e Ingeniería Ambiental, Escuela de Hábitat y Sostenibilidad, San Martín B1650, Argentina4Instituto de Física de Materiales Tandil (UNCPBA) and CIFICEN (UNCPBA-CICPBA-CONICET), Pinto 399 (B7000GHG), Tandil B7000, Argentina5Centro de Física de Materiales (CSIC, UPV/EHU)-Materials Physics Center (MPC), Paseo Manuel de Lardizabal 5, 20018 San Sebastián, Spain6Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), 20018 San Sebastián, Spain*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.Molecules 2023, 28(1), 81; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules28010081Received: 30 November 2022 / Revised: 16 December 2022 / Accepted: 19 December 2022 / Published: 22 December 2022(This article belongs to the Special Issue Semi-solid Matrices in Non Conventional Solvents)Download Review Reports Versions NotesAbstractThe detection of emerging contaminants in bodies of water has steadily increased in recent years, becoming a severe problem threatening human and ecosystem health. Developing new materials with adsorption properties to remove these pollutants represents an important step toward a potential solution. In this paper, a polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT) nanofibrous membrane incorporating clinoptilolite zeolite was developed and its excellent performance in removing tetracycline (TC) and methylene blue (MB) from water was demonstrated. The composite membrane was prepared in two steps: firstly, a homogeneous dispersion of clinoptilolite (1 wt% respect to polymer) in a PBAT solution (12.6 wt%) was electrospun; secondly, the electrospun membrane was subjected to an acid treatment that improved its wettability through the protonation of the surface silanol groups of clinoptilolite. The resulting membrane was hydrophilic and showed higher adsorption for TC (800 mg/g) and MB (100 mg/g), using a low dose (90 mg/L) powdered zeolite. The maximum removal capacity was obtained at neutral pH, being the cation exchange reaction the main adsorption mechanism. Pseudo-second-order kinetics and Henry?s law agree well with the proposed chemisorption and the high affinity of TC and MB for the adsorbent. The material can be reused after the removal process without generating additional contamination, although losing some effectivity.