With the increase in the amount of pharmaceuticals in wastewater, concerns have arisen about the impact on the environment. As traditional biological treatment proves unsuccessful for their removal, research has focused on combining biological treatment with advanced oxidation methods, including photocatalytic degradation. One of the processes that accompanies photodegradation is adsorption. To gain better insight into photodegradation, the research was focused on understanding the adsorption process. Phenytoin and oxytetracycline were chosen as adsorbates because they are found in relatively high amounts in wastewater and at the same time are not very well researched. ZnO nanoparticles were explored as photocatalyst as they are promising due to sufficient band gap energy and relatively low environmental toxicity. The work was based on the experiments on the characterization of ZnO, the study of the kinetics and thermodynamics of adsorption of both pharmaceuticals on ZnO, and computer simulations of the electron surface potential of molecules. It was found that the nanoparticles in suspension are in the form of porous 500 nm agglomerates with a slightly positively charged surface. The adsorption of the two pharmaceuticals belongs to physisorption, which is probably due to electrostatic interactions. It was found that adsorption on the surface of the agglomerates is a very fast process, while diffusion and adsorption into the pores are much slower. Phenytoin is adsorbed only on the surface of the agglomerates, while oxytetracycline can also penetrate into the pores of ZnO.
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