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Adsorption Characteristics and Mechanisms of Oxytetracycline on Nano Biochar: Effects of Environmental Conditions and Particle Aggregation

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Abstract

Physical disintegration of macro biochars in natural environments produces nano biochars, thus affecting environmental processes (e.g., adsorption, migration) of antibiotic contaminants. However, knowledge about the relationships between adsorption behaviors of antibiotics and unique physicochemical colloidal properties of nano biochar are relatively limited. In this study, a nano biochar (NSD700) was prepared from sawdust-derived biochar (SD700) by a combination method of ball milling, sonication, and centrifugation to contrastively investigate their adsorption for oxytetracycline (OTC). NSD700 had similar chemical structure properties of carbon fraction with SD700, whereas NSD700 possessed greater surface area and porosity. The maximal sorption capacity of OTC on NSD700 was 30.7 mg/g, ~3 times greater than that of SD700 (10.4 mg/g), primarily benefiting from more exposed surfaces and pores. OTC adsorption on NSD700 was inhibited under acidic and alkaline condition, and the inhibiting effect was more significant in comparison with that on SD700. OTC sorption onto NSD700 gradually decreased with increasing concentration of Na+, but was not observed for SD700. Aggregation kinetic of NSD700 varying with Na+ concentration demonstrated that the inhibiting effect might be affiliated with the destabilization and aggregation of NSD700, which could obstruct adsorption sites. This study provided insights for antibiotic adsorption characteristics on nano biochar and will help understanding the process and fate of antibiotics in the biochar-remediated environment.

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All relevant data are within the paper.

Abbreviations

OTC:

Oxytetracycline

SD700:

Sawdust-derived biochar

NSD700:

Nano biochar

NaCl:

Sodium chloride

NaOH:

Sodium hydroxide

HCl:

Hydroxide acid

SEM:

Scanning electron microscope

TEM:

Transmission electron microscope

AFM:

Atomic force microscope

XRD:

X-ray diffractometer

FTIR:

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

DXR3:

Raman spectroscopy

DR:

Dubinin-Radushkevich

BET:

Brunauere-Emmette-Teller

BJH:

Berret-Joyner-Halenda

HPLC:

High-performance liquid chromatography

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Acknowledgements

We thank Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2020MD112), National Natural Science Foundation of China (52170135, 52070107), and Research Foundation for Talented Scholars of Qingdao Agricultural University (6651119010) for conducting the experiments.

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Author notes

  1. Wenqiang Jia and Xiangrui Pan contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Qingdao Engineering Research Center for Rural Environment, College of Resource and Environment, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, 266109, China

    Wenqiang Jia, Xiangrui Pan, Jiaying Song, Jian Wang, Weikai Sun, Yanjun Xin, Qinghua Yan, Chengzhi Zhou & Guocheng Liu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150090, China

    Wenqiang Jia & Jian Wang

  3. Qihe County Agriculture and Rural Bureau, Dezhou, 251100, China

    Xiangrui Pan

  4. Institute of Coastal Environmental Pollution Control, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Marine Environment and Ecology, Ministry of Education, Frontiers Science Center for Deep Ocean Multispheres and Earth System, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266100, China

    Hao Zheng

  5. Sanya Oceanographic Institution, Ocean University of China, Sanya, 572000, China

    Hao Zheng

Authors
  1. Wenqiang Jia
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  2. Xiangrui Pan
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  3. Jiaying Song
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  10. Guocheng Liu
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Wenqiang Jia contributed to the conception of the study and wrote the manuscript. Investigation, data curation, and formal analysis were performed by Wenqiang Jia and Xiangrui Pan. Data curation and formal analysis were performed by Jiaying Song, Jian Wang, and Weikai Sun. Supervision and funding acquisition were performed by Yanjun Xin. Supervision and investigation were performed by Qinghua Yan and Chengzhi Zhou. Conceptualization, writing—review and editing, resources, supervision, and funding acquisition were performed by Hao Zheng and Guocheng Liu. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Hao Zheng or Guocheng Liu.

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Core Ideas

• OTC adsorption on macro and nano biochar was investigated contrastively

• Greater surface area and more pores of nano biochar favor OTC adsorption

• Aggregation of nano biochar due to coexisting cation may shield adsorption sites

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Jia, W., Pan, X., Song, J. et al. Adsorption Characteristics and Mechanisms of Oxytetracycline on Nano Biochar: Effects of Environmental Conditions and Particle Aggregation. Water Air Soil Pollut 234, 616 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-023-06633-w

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