Publication date: 28th August 2024
Nowadays, water pollution from human activities is one of the most important environmental problems with far-reaching effects on both the environment and humans [1]. Naproxen (NAP) is one of the widely used NSAIDs as it is used to treat mild to moderate pain with analgesic and antipyretic properties. Due to its extensive use, NAP has been detected in surface and groundwater, wastewater and drinking water at very low concentrations [2]. Although these concentrations are very low, naproxen is still harmful to aquatic ecosystems and humans because of its toxicological profile. Its presence at these levels can seriously affect aquatic organisms causing them such genotoxicity and human health such oxidative stress and genotoxicity [3]. In recent years, many techniques such as biofilm biodegradation, heterogeneous oxidation, filtration and ozonation, reverse osmosis and adsorption have been developed for the removal of NAP from water. Adsorption is an economical, simple, efficient, fast and recyclable method and is therefore suggested to remove NAP from aqueous media. In general, a wide range of adsorbent materials such as carbon-based materials, metal-organic framework materials, ionic resins have been used for the purification of water from naproxen [4]. In the present work a graphene oxide-based adsorbents are used. Graphene oxide (GO) is a material with large specific surface area, many functional groups on its surface which make it strongly hydrophilic and good anti-fouling properties [5]. In order to increase the selectivity of graphene oxide, chitosan was used. Chitosan is a natural polysaccharide derived from chitin. It is a non-toxic compound which contains hydroxy and amino groups through which it interacts with the contaminant [6]. Diethylenetriamine (DETA) was used, an organic compound, through which we will increase the presence of amino groups in our composite making our composite more selective [7]. Factors affecting the adsorption, such as the pH solution, initial concentration of NAP, contact time, and temperature, were investigated. According to the results obtained, it was found that at pH 3.0 ± 0.1 by applying 1 g/L of adsorbent in 20 mg/L of NAP, more than 85% was removed. Kinetic data of followed the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Langmuir and Freundlich equations were used to describe the adsorption. The composites’ morphology and structure were characterized by FT-IR, SEM, BET and XRD analysis. Overall, the results indicate that Cs/mGO/DETA can be effectively employed for removal of NAP from aqueous solutions.
We acknowledge support of this work by the project “Advanced Nanostructured Materials for Sustainable Growth: Green Energy Production/Storage, Energy Saving and Environmental Remediation” (TAEDR-0535821) which is implemented under the action “Flagship actions in interdisciplinary scientific fields with a special focus on the productive fabric” (ID 16618), Greece 2.0 – National Recovery and Resilience Fund and funded by European Union NextGenerationEU.