An Insight Into the Adsorption of Potentially Hazardous Drugs From Pharmaceutical Wastewater Using Polyaniline– <i>Mucuna</i> Composite (PMC): Multicriteria Analysis

This study examined the extent to which polyaniline– Mucuna composite (PMC) can remove hydroquinone, hydrazine, and tolyltriazole (HHT), potentially hazardous drugs, from pharmaceutical effluent by adsorption. Batch adsorption with varying PMC dosages (0.004–0.02 g), contact periods (10–40 min), and pH levels (3–9) was employed. The optimal conditions for HHT uptake by PMC were determined. The process was predicted using response surface methodology (RSM) and artificial intelligence algorithm models. The pH effect revealed that HHT was better adsorbed at pH 3 and pH 5. Of the three drugs investigated, the 0.02 g adsorbent dosage provided the best HHT uptake at an equilibrium time of 40 min. Though HHT uptake followed second‐order kinetic models, hydroquinone and tolyltriazole aligned with the Freundlich isotherm, while hydrazine aligned with the Langmuir isotherm model. The three optimization strategies were compared in terms of their predictive power using the regression coefficient ( R 2 ) and mean square error (MSE). The RSM ( R 2 : 0.9854, MSE: 0.0002), ANN ( R 2 : 0.9979, MSE: 2.9779E − 24), and ANFIS ( R 2 : 0.9932, MSE: 2.22802E − 7) model indices are observed for hydroquinone uptake; RSM ( R 2 0.9970, MSE 0.0001), ANN ( R 2 : 0.9998, MSE: 2.9779E − 24), and ANFIS ( R 2 : 0.9968, MSE: 3.40990E − 7) for hydrazine; and RSM ( R 2 : 0.9924, MSE: 0.00015), ANN ( R 2 : 0.9987, MSE: 2.9779E − 24), and ANFIS ( R 2 0.9973, MSE 1.32860E − 5) for tolyltriazole, respectively. The generated results clearly illustrate the potential of PMC in removing the HHT from pharmaceutical wastewater and the superiority of the ANN model over the ANFIS and RSM in accurately predicting the uptake of HHT.