Recent advances in the adsorption of ofloxacin from aqueous media

Despite the ever-increasing effort towards combating antimicrobial resistance, the accumulation of ofloxacin (OFL) in aqueous matrix becomes more rampant. Understanding its current mitigation strategies could advance material and computational design that could minimize severe environmental impact. The aim of this study was to identify existing mitigation strategies with an emphasis on adsorption, investigate the efficacy of existing adsorbents, reconcile trends in previously published studies, and identify knowledge gaps in literature bank. The highest adsorption capacity reported for OFL was 599.6 mg/g which was achieved using copper-doped ZIF-8. The major adsorption mechanisms observed include electrostatic, hydrophobic interaction, hydrogen bonding, π-π Interaction, electron-donor–acceptor (EDA) interaction, and surface complexation. The mechanism of adsorption was majorly Langmuir or Freundlich with pseudo-second order as best-fit kinetic model. Reduced graphene oxide-copper oxide nanocomposite with 6-amino-5-nitroso-2-thiouracil possessed the highest number of adsorption–desorption cycle. For better experimental design, in the future, researchers could focus on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling to better understand the transport of OFL and adsorption kinetics.