Sorbents utilizing h-BN micro- and nanoparticles for efficient antibiotic removal in wastewater treatment

Currently, there is a high demand for novel sorbents for wastewater treatment. Nanostructured materials are often considered as more promising sorbents compared to their microsized counterparts, which, however, requires experimental verification. In this work, two types of h-BN materials (micro- and nanosized) are compared as candidates for antibiotic sorption. The initial h-BN was in the form of microsized pellets. Nanostructurued h-BN was obtained by high energy ball milling of the initial powder. The effect of ball milling on the microstructure, morphology, chemical composition and surface chemical state was investigated by SEM, TEM, STEM, EDX, XRD, XPS, FTIR and BET techniques. Adsorption properties were studied on samples in the form of pellets and powders. Activated carbon powder was used as a reference material. The antibiotic adsorption process was studied using tetracycline and linezolid. The influence of the h-BN structure on the adsorption characteristics was elucidated using DFT calculations.