Liquid-waste derived magnetic porous carbon sphere for effective removal of tetracycline from aqueous solution

Effective removal of tetracycline (TC) from wastewater is highly important while still faces challenges especially in adsorption capacity. Herein, a novel N-doped magnetic porous graphitic carbon sphere (N-MPGCS) adsorbent was fabricated by a green strategy using tannic acid (TA) as organic ligand and stainless steel pickling wastewater as metal source. Melamine was also introduced to increase nitrogen-containing functional groups. Among the obtained carbon spheres, N-MPGCS1–800 sample shows a large specific surface area (up to 922.78 m2 g−1), appropriate O/N functional groups, suitable sp2 carbon, and good magnetic responsivity. Benefiting from these merits, this optimal material exhibits a high Langmuir adsorption capacity (1005.5 mg g−1 at 45 °C) for TC, fast adsorption kinetics (5 min for adsorption equilibration time at 50 mg L−1), and good applicability towards pH (3−10) and co-existing ions. Besides, the excellent magnetism permits the convenient and rapid recovery of adsorbent from the adsorption system. Moreover, the high TC removal ratio (92.3% after three cycles) presents its outstanding regeneration. Adsorption studies and characterizations show that H-bond, π-π stacking, metal-organic complexation interactions, and pore-filling effect contribute to the adsorption together. In addition, N-MPGCS1–800 also shows good removal on enrofloxacin, moxifloxacin, and norfloxacin. This work proves that N-MPGCS material can serve as a potential adsorbent, and more importantly, it gives a new path for mining industrial waste to produce high-effective magnetic carbon materials.