Recyclable ZIF-8 inserted boronic acid-modified bacterial nanocellulose microspheres for improved tetracyclines removal from hoggery wastewater

Herein, a novel recyclable composite microsphere PnBC/ZIF-8-CNs was successfully synthesized by incorporating the zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) into 3-aminophenylboronic acid modified bacterial nanocellulose microspheres (PnBC-MS). The structural characteristics were characterized with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) as well as element energy X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) mapping, X-ray diffraction (XRD), fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy), and brunauer-emmett-teller (BET). The data showed that adsorption of PnBC/ZIF-8-CNs accorded with the pseudo-first-order kinetic model with spontaneous and endothermic process. The maximum adsorption capacity of tetracycline (1564.44 mg/g) enhanced by 1.2–5 folds compared with other adsorbents containing ZIF-8. The adsorption rate maintained at 81.25 % after five cycles of adsorption-desorption. The practical removal efficiency of tetracycline from real hoggery wastewater by PnBC/ZIF-8-CNs reached 89.77 %. Overall, these features suggested that PnBC/ZIF-8-CNs had simple preparation process, high removal efficiency and good reusability, and it will be a promising adsorbent for the actual antibiotics removal in water.