2016), marketed and used worldwide for several bacterial infections treatment in humans and animals (Carabineiro et al. 2019).Ĭiprofloxacin (CIP) belongs to the fluoroquinolones (FQS) antibiotic group (Li et al. Antibiotics are one of the pharmaceutical compounds that are widely consumed either for treatment or prevention of diseases and/or infections, such as norfloxacin, sulfamethoxazole, ciprofloxacin, macrolides, and tetracyclines (Carneiro et al. The main groups of ECs are pharmaceutical compounds, pesticides, dyes, surfactants, detergents, and personal care products (Li et al. Despite their low concentration, ECs cause adverse ecological effects on human and animal health (Zhou et al. Emerging contaminants (ECs) are defined as any chemicals or pollutants which are presented in a very low concentration and not continuously monitored in the aquatic environment (Rodriguez-Narvaez et al. The removal of emerging contaminants from aquatic ecosystems has gained much interest due to their associated environmental risks and impact on human and animal health. Furthermore, column studies showed satisfactory results confirming that AAB can be successfully used in continuous mode for practical applications. Reusability studies demonstrated that AAB could be reused successfully up to 5 cycles. Maximal monolayer sorption capacity of AAB was found to be 305.20 mg/g, compared to 126.56 mg/g for NB. The mechanism of CIP sorption onto AAB was successfully explored with the assistance of characterization techniques. Kinetic studies confirmed that CIP sorption mechanism was chemisorption which included ion-exchange and surface complexation mechanisms. Combining pH zpc measurements, effect of solution pH and CIP speciation revealed that CIP sorption onto bentonite is highly dependent on solution pH. The BET surface area analysis revealed that acid-activated bentonite (AAB) possessed more than two fold higher surface area as compared to NB. Acid activation technique was opted for modifying natural bentonite (NB) to enhance the adsorptive removal of CIP from water. Thus, this study focused on exploring the interaction mechanisms between ciprofloxacin (CIP) (antibiotic) and clay (a low-cost adsorbent) during sorption process. The presence of emerging pollutants such as hazardous chemicals, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and endocrine-disrupting chemicals in water sources is a serious concern to the environment and human health.

Oxygen not included clay