Cyclodextrin nanosponges as adsorbent material to remove hazardous pollutants from water: The case of ciprofloxacin

[Display omitted] •Cyclodextrins nanosponges for the emerging pollutants removal from water.•Fast Ciprofloxacin adsorption and desorption.•Recyclable adsorbent material and pollutant recovery. This study was developed inside the European Project Life “Clean up” (LIFE 16 ENV/ES/000169) to search for suitable adsorbents to purify treated water from emerging pollutants. Notably, among pollutants, the attention was focused on Ciprofloxacin removal, selecting as recyclable adsorbent Cyclodextrin-based nanosponges, characterized by using FTIR-ATR, DSC, TG, SEM, EDX, gas-volumetric analysis, and XRD analyses. Indeed, the in-batch adsorption process was quite complete removing, in a few minutes, 90% of the pollutant from water, with a maximum adsorption capacity of 2 mg/g. A better comprehension of the adsorption mechanism was obtained by studying the effect of various experimental parameters on the process, i.e. ionic strength, pH values, adsorbent/pollutant ratio, and temperature values. The thermodynamics (ΔG°