Removal of Sulfadiazine Using 3D Interconnected Petal-Like Magnetic Reduced Graphene Oxide (MrGO) Nanocomposites

Abstract

Adsorption has been regarded as one of the most efficient and economic methods for the removal of antibiotics from aqueous solutions. In this work, different graphene-based magnetic nanocomposites using a modified solvothermal method were synthesized and employed to remove sulfadiazine (SDZ) from water. The adsorption capacity of the optimal magnetic reduced graphene oxide (MrGO) was approximately 3.24 times that of pure Fe3O4. After five repeated adsorption cycles, the removal rate of SDZ (100 μg/L) by MrGO nanocomposites was still around 89.3%, which was only about a 3% decrease compared to that in the first cycle. Mechanism investigations showed that both chemical and physical adsorption contributed to the removal of SDZ. The excellent adsorption performance and recyclability of MrGO nanocomposites could be attributed to their wonderful 3D interconnected petal-like structures. The MrGO with SDZ could be easily recollected by magnetic separation. The MrGO also exhibited excellent adsorption performance in the purification of real polluted water.