The occurrence of antibiotics in the environment has recently raised serious concern regarding their potential threat to aquatic ecosystem and human health. In this study, the magnetic ion exchange（MIEX） resin was applied for removing three commonly-used antibiotics, sulfamethoxazole（SMX）, tetracycline（TCN） and amoxicillin（AMX） from water.The results of batch experiments show that the maximum adsorption capacities on the MIEX resin for SMX, TCN and AMX were 789.32, 443.18 and 155.15 μg/m L at 25°C,respectively, which were 2–7 times that for the powdered activated carbon. The adsorption kinetics of antibiotics on the MIEX resin could be simulated by the pseudo-second-order model（R^2= 0.99）, and the adsorption isotherm data were well described by the Langmuir model（R^2= 0.97）. Solution p H exhibited a remarkable impact on the adsorption process and the absorbed concentrations of the tested antibiotics were obtained around the neutral p H.The MIEX resin could be easily regenerated by 2 mol/L Na Cl solution and maintained high adsorption removal for the tested antibiotics after regeneration. Anion exchange mechanism mainly controlled the adsorption of antibiotic and the formation of hydrogen binding between the antibiotic and resin can also result in the increase of adsorption capacity. The high adsorption capacity, fast adsorption rate and prominent reusability make the MIEX resin a potential adsorbent in the application for removing antibiotics from water.
This work described the development, optimization and validation of an analytical method for rapid detection of multiple-class pharmaceuticals in both municipal wastewater and sludge samples based on ultrasonic solvent extraction, solid-phase extraction, and ultra high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry quantification. The results indicated that the developed method could effectively extract all the target pharmaceuticals （25） in a single process and analyze them within 24 min. The recoveries of the target pharmaceuticals were in the range of 69%-131% for wastewater and 54%-130% for sludge at different spiked concentration levels. The method quantification limits in wastewater and sludge ranged from 0.02 to 0.73 ng/L and from 0.02 to 1.00μg/kg, respectively. Subsequently, this method was validated and applied for residual pharma- ceutical analysis in a wastewater treatment plant located in Beijing, China. All the target pharmaceuticals were detected in the influent samples with concentrations varying from 0.09 ng/L （tiamulin） to 15.24 μg/L （caffeine）; meanwhile, up to 23 pharmaceuticals were detected in sludge samples with concentrations varying from 60 ng/kg （sulfamethizole） to 8.55 mg/kg （ofloxacin）. The developed method demonstrated its selectivity, sensitivity, and reliability for detecting multiple-class pharmaceuticals in complex matrices such as municipal wastewater and sludge.
Xiangjuan YuanZhimin QiangWeiwei BenBing ZhuJunxin Liu
