Enhanced adsorption performance for antibiotics by alcohol-solvent mediated boron nitride nanosheets

The development of high-efficient adsorbents for the treatment of antibiotics from contaminated water has been of great concern.This work introduced an alcohol-solvent mediated strategy to increase the specific surface area(SSA)and porosity of hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets(BNNSs)for improving tetracycline(TC)removal efficiency.The BNNSs synthesized with the mediation of n-propanol solvent(BN-P)exhibited the largest pore volume and relatively high SSA(increased by 34%and 64%,respectively,compared with that synthesized under the mediation of water)in its structure,which in turn facilitated the mass transfer of TC molecules onto BN-P framework.The remarkable adsorption performance of BN-P,with 20%increase in equilibrium adsorption capacity and Langmuir maximum adsorption capacity of 556 mg·g^(-1),was achieved for capturing TC within just 3 h,which is mainly through p-p interaction and electrostatic force.Pseudo-second kinetics equation can well illustrate the adsorption process,while Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm models fitted the equilibrium data well.Thermodynamics study demonstrated a spontaneous exothermal adsorption process.Furthermore,the strong environmental suitability and notable recycling performance of BN-P revealed its good application prospect in removing antibiotic TC from wastewater.