Fabrication and characterization of amphiphilic magnetic water purification materials for efficient PPCPs removal

Abstract Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are emerging contaminants that have gained increasing attention in recent years. Conventional adsorption materials exhibit poor efficiency in removing PPCPs. In this regard, a series of magnetic particles (Nanda Amphiphilic Materials, NDAMs ) was fabricated and characterized in this study. These materials were prepared by special polymerization with different monomer proportions [ N -vinyl-2-pyrrolidone (NVP)/divinylbenzene, (DVB)]. Characterization results indicated that NDAM-40 (n (NVP) :n (DVB) , 6:4) was the most effective and possessed the largest BET surface area (650 m 2 /g) among the nine prepared NDMAs. NDAM-40 also possessed the highest nitrogen content (1.13%) and the smallest contact angle (71.5°). Seventeen representative PPCPs were chosen to investigate the adsorption performance of NDAM-40. Norit, a commercial activated carbon, was used for comparison. NDAM-40 exhibited faster adsorption rate than Norit. For most PPCPs, the pseudo-second-order rate constants of NDAM-40 were more than five times higher than those of Norit. The amounts ( Q e) of most PPCPs adsorbed on NDAM-40 were two to five times higher than those on Norit. NDAM-40 was applicable to water purification because of its definite advantages in terms of removal efficiency and recyclability. The removal efficiency of 17 PPCPs exceeded 80% when using NDAM-40 , and only 20%–70% when using Norit.