Removal of sulfamethazine antibiotics using cow manure-based carbon adsorbents

Low-cost adsorbents, e.g., cow manure-based carbon, provide alternatives to remove veterinary antibiotic sulfamethazine (SMT) from contaminated water bodies. In this study, the chemical structures and compositions of cow manure (CM) carbonized at 400, 600, and 800 °C (CM400, CM600, and CM800) were examined using elemental analyzer (EA), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller, and spectroscopic techniques. Adsorptions of SMT on CM samples were conducted as functions of pH, hydrophobicity, and ionic strengths. Results of EA and spectroscopic analyses suggested that the raw CM and CM400 samples contained the highest amounts of O-containing groups and aliphatic domains. Amounts of such two chemical groups decreased as carbonization temperatures increased. The specific surface areas and total pore volumes of CM samples increased significantly when the carbonization temperatures exceeded 600 °C. SMT adsorption on CM samples could be described essentially by the pseudo-second-order kinetic, intra-particle diffusion, and Freundlich isotherm models. Low pH and ionic strength were favorable for SMT adsorption in CM samples, particularly for the CM800, because a strong π +–π electron donor–acceptor interaction (π +–π EDA) was formed between SMT and CM surfaces enriched with hydrophobic domains. Further, the high adsorption affinity of SMT to the CM600 and CM800 samples was attributed in part to their larger surface areas and total pore volumes. Generally, CM-based materials carbonized >600 °C showed relatively stable structures and exhibited strong aromatic properties. Moreover, maximum adsorption capacities of SMT on the CM800 sample (37–39 mM/kg) were significantly higher than those of other common adsorbents (0.02–35.93 mM/kg).