Co-adsorption and interaction mechanism of cadmium and sulfamethazine onto activated carbon surface

Owing to their diverse functional groups, antibiotics can easily form complexes with heavy metals; the complexation alters the migration and transformation behavior of both antibiotics and heavy metals. In this study, we investigated the co-adsorption mechanism of sulfamethazine (SMT) and cadmium (Cd2+) heavy metal ions and created an ideal water model containing two major contaminants: sulfamethazine and heavy metal cadmium ions. Combined with the experimental analysis of the interaction mechanism, the results indicate the heterogeneous multilayer adsorption of SMT on the surface of activated carbon (AC). The bridging role of cadmium ions promotes the adsorption of SMT through the formation of SMT-Cd2+-AC ternary complexes on the surface of activated carbon. Characterization experiments provided further insight into the adsorption behavior of Cd2+ and SMT on activated carbon, revealing a strong correlation between the Cd2+-SMT complexation and the SMT adsorption capacity. These results indicate that the effects of the coexistence of antibiotics and heavy metal ions should be fully taken into account when investigating the environmental behavior of antibiotics and heavy metal ions.