Adsorption of chloramphenicol onto cobalt-based zeolitic-imidazolate framework (Co-ZIF-67)

Releasing pharmaceuticals like chloramphenicol (CHL) into water sources will likely pose potential risks to human health and aquatic life. Adsorption is preferably adopted to remove chloramphenicol from water. This study reported the microwave-assisted production of a cobalt-based zeolitic–imidazolate framework (ZIF67) for adsorptive removal of CHL in water. ZIF-67 was characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). ZIF67 showed a uniform morphology with a mean particle size of about 350 nm. For CHL uptake, the effect of time (0-120 min), concentration (2.5-20 mg/L), pH (3-9), and dosage (0.1-1.0 g/L) was investigated. It was found that pseudo-second-order (PSO, Radj.2: 0.998) and Langmuir (Radj.2: 0.991) models best described the kinetic and isotherm of CHL, respectively. Based on the Langmuir fitting of the isotherm model, the maximum adsorption capacity (Qmax) was found at 25.73 mg/g. This study suggests that ZIF67 can be a potential adsorbent for CHL removal and a modification should be considered in future research to improve its performance in the environmental field.