Recent progress on the remediation of metronidazole antibiotic as emerging contaminant from water environments using sustainable adsorbents: A review

This current review discusses the eco-toxicological effect of metronidazole (MNZ) in the environment, characterization of MNZ adsorbents, mechanism of adsorption of MNZ from water and wastewater, adsorbents types (carbon-based compounds, MOFs, nanoscale semiconductor photocatalysts, zero-valent iron nanoparticles, magnesium oxide nanoparticles, nanocomposites, chitin, and chitosan-based adsorbents), their adsorption abilities, experimental findings on the isotherm, kinetic models and thermodynamic studies of MNZ. Additionally, the molecular modelling and simulation of MNZ removal from water environments. The study showed that activated carbon and metal-organic frameworks are the best adsorbents for the removal of MNZ that MTD@MOF5 nanocomposite adsorbents have more qmax equal 539.33 mg/g. The Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second order kinetics model reported to best describe the isotherm and kinetic model respectively. Solute concentration is the most important physiochemical parameter in the adsorption process and continuous column MNZ is easy to operate, the adsorption is fast and the experiment can easily be scaled for large-scale implementation. Future studies should include competitors for more realistic adsorption studies, and to demonstrate the affinity of the adsorbent for MNZ. [Display omitted] •The ecotoxicological effects of MNZ antibiotics•Novel adsorbents for sustainable water remediation containing MNZ antibiotics•Isotherm, kinetic models, thermodynamic, molecular modelling, and simulation•Regeneration potential of adsorbents and fixed-bed column studies•Knowledge gaps and future perspectives