Porous carbon–based material from fish scales for the adsorption of tetracycline antibiotics

Abstract

Turning fish wastes into value-added products is an economic and eco-friendly step for elimination of such waste. In the present work, porous carbon–based material form fish scale (FSC) was prepared by calcium chloride activation. The physicochemical properties of FSC and its performance evaluation in the adsorptive removal of tetracycline (TC) antibiotic were conducted. This work also studied the influence of batch variables such as agitation time, initial concentration, solution pH, and temperature on the adsorption of TC unto FSC. With relatively higher R² values for Langmuir model (0.994–0.997) than Freundlich, the analysis of isotherm data showed the best correlation with Langmuir equation. The maximum monolayer adsorption capacities obtained were 80.826, 86.394, and 108.021 mg/g at 30, 40, and 50 °C, respectively. The TC uptake as a function of time was accurately represented by a pseudo-first-order model. FSC with a mesoporous structure and featured functional multi-sites for vast antibiotic adsorption is a promising adsorbent for attraction of tetracycline and other pollutants.