Calcium alginate/activated carbon/humic acid tri-system porous fibers for removing tetracycline from aqueous solution

Abstract In this study, activated carbon and humic acid powder were fixed by the cross-linking reaction of sodium alginate. Calcium alginate/activated carbon/humic acid (CAH) tri-system porous fibers were prepared by the wet spinning method and freeze-dried for the removal of tetracycline in aqueous solution. Subsequently, the morphology and structure of CAH fibers were measured by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method. The effect of pH, contact time, temperature and other factors on adsorption behavior were analyzed. The Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models were used to fit tetracycline adsorption equilibrium data. The dynamics data were evaluated by the pseudo-second-order model, the pseudo-second-order model and the intraparticle diffusion model. Thermodynamic study confirmed that the adsorption of tetracycline on CAH fibers was a spontaneous process.