Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Journal of Inorganic and Organometallic Polymers and Materials https://doi.org/10.1007/s10904-020-01499-5 Evaluating Nanoparticles Decorated on Fe 3 O 4 @SiO 2 ‑Schif Base (Fe 3 O 4 @SiO 2 ‑APTMS‑HBA) in Adsorption of Ciprofoxacin from Aqueous Environments Najmeh Amirmahani 1,2  · Hakimeh Mahdizadeh 3  · Mohammad Malakootian 2,3  · Abbas Pardakhty 4  · Nosrat O. Mahmoodi 5 Received: 22 January 2020 / Accepted: 7 March 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020 Abstract The aim of this study is synthesize of Fe 3 O 4 @SiO 2 -Schif base nanocomposite (Fe 3 O 4 @SiO 2 -APTMS-HBA) as a new and efective adsorbent in the removal of CIP antibiotic from aqueous medium. Field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray powder dif- fraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) analyses were used to investigate the morphological, structural, and magnetic properties of Fe 3 O 4 @SiO 2 -APTMS-HBA. The parameters afecting the adsorption process including, initial pH solution, adsorbent concentration, CIP concentration and contact time were investigated. The maximum removal was achieved with 96% efciency under optimum process conditions, including pH 7, contact time = 5 min, CIP concentration = 10 mg/L, and adsorbent concentration 50 mg/L. In the isotherms and kinetic studies of the adsorption process, the results showed that the adsorption process followed the pseudo-quadratic kinetic model and Freundlich isotherm. The maximum adsorption capacity (q m ) was obtained as 415.3 mg/g. Fe 3 O 4 @SiO 2 -APTMS-HBA had advantages such as fast pollutant adsorption power, easy magnetic separation from aqueous solutions by the magnet, and reusability in several stages without changes in the magnetic property. Therefore, Fe 3 O 4 @SiO 2 -APTMS-HBA nanocomposite can be used in the removal of recalcitrant pollutants such as CIP antibiotics. Keywords Ciprofoxacin · Fe 3 O 4 @SiO 2 -APTMS-HBA · Adsorption · Magnetic nanocomposite 1 Introduction Widespread use of drugs and antibiotics has led to their fre- quent detection in the fnal efuents of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Most of the antibiotics are partially metab- olized in the body and the rest which are about 30–70% are excreted into the treatment system without being metabo- lized [1, 2]. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, one-quarter of all diseases are attributable to prolonged exposure to environmental pollution [3, 4]. The presence of antibiotics in aqueous solutions can increase breast and prostate cancer, carcinogenicity and mutagenicity, DNA damage and lymphocyte damage even in low concen- trations. Antibiotics mainly enter the environment through four pathways: production process of antibiotics, wastewater, use of urban biofuels on the land, and inappropriate dis- posal of wastes and unused drugs [1, 5, 6]. Ciprofoxacin, as one of the most important synthetic antibiotics from the fuoroquinolone group, is widely used in hospitals for the * Nosrat O. Mahmoodi mahmoodi@guilan.ac.ir 1 Department of Chemistry, University of Guilan, University Campus 2, Rasht, Iran 2 Environmental Health Engineering Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran 3 Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran 4 Pharmaceutics Research Center, Neuropharmacology Institute, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran 5 Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran