Insights into the adsorption of tetracycline onto cellulose nanocrystal structured MgAl/LDH composite

The present study evaluated for the first time the adsorption potential of cellulose nanocrystal-structured MgAl/LDH (CNC/MgAl-LDH) composite for the removal of tetracycline (TC) from the aqueous phase. The prepared adsorbent was characterized by several physicochemical techniques including SEM, XRD, FTIR, and BET surface area analysis. The CN-MAl-1 composite exhibited a high specific surface area of 101.927 m2 g−1. The adsorption kinetic data is well correlated with the pseudo-second order kinetic model. The Langmuir isotherm model showed an excellent fit to the experimental data with the maximum adsorption capacity of 143.5 and 153.3 mg g−1 at 298 and 318 K, respectively. The thermodynamic studies indicated that the adsorption of TC was spontaneous, favorable, and endothermic with ΔH0 = 25.13 kJ mol−1. After five cycles of regeneration, the TC removal efficiency of the adsorbent remained higher than 90%. The as-synthesized adsorbent showed to be promising and efficient in the removal of TC from aqueous solutions.