Scavenging of amoxicillin using KOH-treated sugarcane bagasse-based activated carbon

Abstract The release of antibiotics merging with waterways can create health problems on the organic life. Hence, the objective of this study is to convert sugarcane bagasse into activated carbon (SBAC) to sequester amoxicillin (AMOX) from liquid medium. The production of SBAC was performed amid chemical stimulation adopting potassium hydroxide (KOH). The resulted SBAC posed Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area and mesopores surface area of 713.45 m 2 /g and 503.85 m 2 /g, respectively, alongside mean pore size of 2.33 nm. In equilibrium study, the adsorption uptakes of AMOX by SBAC elevated from 2.40 to 8.67 mg/g when the saturation of AMOX solution rose from 5 to 30 mg/g. The isotherm analysis indicated that the AMOX-SBAC system aligned most accurately with the Langmuir equation, demonstrating an optimum capacity, Q m of 13.55 mg/g. Kinetic exploration divulged that pseudo-first order (PFO) corresponded to the adsorption system the most accurate. The Boyd plot analysis verified the rate of AMOX adsorbed onto SBAC was limited by film diffusion.