Membranas poliméricas funcionalizadas aplicadas ao tratamento de soluções contendo amoxicilina

Abstract

The drugs are pollutants frequently found in effluents due to their widespread use for treating diseases or symptoms, most of them can be easily purchased in pharmacies. These drugs reach the effluents through domestic sewage causing the strengthening of bacterial resistance and intoxicating aquatic organisms. Thus, the need for research and alternative methodologies for the removal of these emerging contaminants, such as amoxicillin, an antibiotic widely used by the population becomes evident. In this study the adsorption capacities of three different composites were analyzed evaluating the influence of pH and temperature on the kinetics and isotherms of adsorption, highlighting among them the MOF HKUST-1 that showed a maximum adsorption capacity of 79 mg g-1, and reached equilibrium in only 30 minutes. Next, membranes were functionalized the commercial PES membranes by layer-by-layer self-assembly technique with MOF HKUST-1, graphene oxide and zeolite Y and PEI, the membranes were analyzed for visual appearance, compaction, amoxicillin removal, fouling, recovery flux rate, SEM, FTIR, TG, pHpcz.and contact angle. The most outstanding were the membranes functionalized with MOF-HKUST, especially the MP3 membrane, with 91% amoxicillin retention, as well as, the highest flux recovery rate of 92%. Thus, the use of MOF-HKUST 1 allowed changes in the membrane surface, promoting increased hydrophilicity, and improved antifouling properties of the membrane. The use of filtration cycles with MP3 membrane showed promising results, reaching a loss of efficiency of only 9% per cycle of contaminant filtration, being possible its use for 4 cycles, with a total loss of efficiency less than 30%. Thus, the results suggest that the PES membrane functionalized with MOF-HKUST-1/PEI, present a great potential to be applied in the treatment of effluents containing amoxicillin.