Effect of humic monomers on the adsorption of sulfamethoxazole sulfonamide antibiotic into a high silica zeolite Y: An interdisciplinary study.

The adsorption efficiency of a high silica zeolite Y towards sulfamethoxazole, a sulfonamide antibiotic, was evaluated in the presence of two humic monomers, vanillin and caffeic acid, representative of phenolic compounds usually occurring in water bodies, owing their dimension comparable to those of the zeolite microporosity. In the entire range of investigated pH (5-8), adsorption of vanillin, as a single component, was reversible whereas it was irreversible for sulfamethoxazole. In equimolar ternary mixtures, vanillin coadsorbed with sulfamethoxazole, conversely to what observed for caffeic acid, accordingly to their adsorption kinetics and pKa values.