Preparation of CTAB-ATP/CTS Composite Adsorbent and Removal Performance of Norfloxacin in Water

In this article, attapulgite (ATP) as a raw material, hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as a modifier, and chitosan (CTS) as a composite are used to prepare a natural mineral-based composite adsorbent CTAB-ATP/CTS for the adsorption of norfloxacin in water. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and specific surface area (BET) were used for characterization. When the initial pH is 7, the dosage of adsorbent is 3 g/L, and the initial concentration of norfloxacin is 50 mg/L, the reaction temperature is 25 °C, the shaking time is 4 h, and the maximum removal rate and adsorption capacity of CTAB-ATP/CTS for norfloxacin reached 94.62% and 23.66 mg/g, respectively. The adsorption of norfloxacin by CTAB-ATP/CTS is more consistent with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model (R2 = 0.9999, 0.9998, 0.9999 at initial concentrations of 25 mg/L, 50 mg/L, 75 mg/L), and the Langmuir isotherm adsorption model(R2 = 0.9903, 0.9935, 0.9933 at temperatures of 25 °C, 30 °C, 35 °C), indicating that the adsorption process of the composite material is controlled by chemical adsorption and its adsorption behavior is mainly single-layer adsorption.