Insight into the key factors and mechanism of excellent tetracycline adsorption on amorphous cobalt carbonate nanosheets.

The extensive use of tetracyclines (TCs) has led to their widespread distribution in the environment, causing serious harm to ecosystems because of their toxicity and resistance to decomposition. Adsorption is presently the principal approach to dispose of TCs, and the development of excellent adsorbents is crucial to TC removal. Herein, a novel amorphous cobalt carbonate hydroxide (ACCH) was successfully prepared by a one-step solvothermal method, which was identified as Co(CO 3) 0·63 (OH) 0.74 ·0.07H 2 O. The ultimate adsorption capacity of ACCH for TC reaches 2746 mg g−1, and the excellent adsorption performance can be maintained over a wide pH (3.0–11.0) and temperature (10–70 °C) range. Moreover, ACCH also exhibits a wonderful adsorption performance for other organic contaminants, such as ciprofloxacin and Rhodamine B. The TC adsorption process can be reasonably described by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model, intraparticle model and Langmuir isothermal model. The experimental results in this work suggest that the excellent adsorption performance of ACCH is ascribed to the large specific surface area, alkaline characteristics and numerous functional groups of ACCH. Accordingly, this work provides a promising strategy for the development of highly-efficient adsorbents and demonstrates their application prospects in environmental remediation. [Display omitted] • A novel amorphous cobalt carbonate hydroxide ACCH was synthesized. • The ACCH has excellent tetracycline adsorption capacity in wide pH and temperature range. • The tetracycline adsorption on amorphous ACCH is a monolayer chemical-adsorption. • Pore filling, electrostatic interaction, hydrogen bonding and complexation are the main driving forces for tetracycline adsorption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]