The water contamination from pharmaceuticals and personal
care products (PPCPs) has attracted worldwide attention in recent
years because of its threat to public health. Berberine is a typical
anti-inflammatory medicine and berberine wastewater is difficult to
be treated due to its high toxicity, poor biodegradability, and high
acidity. Metal–organic frameworks would be a good choice to
remove berberine from wastewater due to its advantages of high specific
surface area, ultrahigh porosity, and structural and functional tunability.
In this study, MIL-101(Fe) was synthesized and used for the removal
of berberine from water. Experimental results indicated that MIL-101(Fe)
showed promising characteristics when berberine was adsorbed in acidic
wastewater. The high concentration of chloride in berberine wastewater
could promote the adsorption of berberine by MIL-101(Fe). Fitting
of batch equilibrium data showed that MIL-101(Fe) had a maximum adsorption
capacity of 163.93 mg/g for berberine removal at pH 7, and the berberine
sorption on MIL-101(Fe) followed the pseudo-second-order model. Furthermore,
the associate mechanism for berberine removal was proposed by characterizing
the material and theoretical calculation. The X-ray power diffraction
(XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-ray photoelectron
spectroscopy (XPS) analysis showed that no chemical reaction occurred
during the adsorption of berberine by MIL-101(Fe). Also, the theoretical
calculation results indicated that π–π interactions
may play the main role in the adsorption of berberine onto MIL-101(Fe).
The findings of this study suggest that MIL-101(Fe) is a promising
sorbent for berberine removal from wastewater.
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