Sorption of paracetamol onto biomaterials

Pharmaceutical residues released into the environment are posing more and more public health problems. It is worthwhile to study the retention of pharmaceuticals residues by adsorption on solid supports. Batch sorption experiments are intended to identify the adsorption isotherms of the pharmaceutically active ingredient on the biomaterials. The results obtained in this study have shown that the retention possibilities of these compounds by bio-adsorbents (clay and sand) are not significant. The negligible sorption for these media is explained by the low hydrophobicity of paracetamol (Log K_ow = 0.46). The retention of paracetamol on the dehydrated sewage sludge and on Posidonia oceanica showed a relatively significant adsorption with a maximal quantity of 0.956 mg g⁻¹ and 1.638 mg g⁻¹ for the dehydrate sludge and P. oceanica, respectively. On the other hand, the study of paracetamol retention on the powdered activated carbon showed a high adsorption capacity of about 515.27 mg g⁻¹. Isotherm data show a good fit with Langmuir's model. An infrared analysis is carried out. It shows identical bands before and after adsorption, with some modifications.