Journal of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, 2021, 9, 15-38 https://www.scirp.org/journal/msce ISSN Online: 2327-6053 ISSN Print: 2327-6045 DOI: 10.4236/msce.2021.911003 Nov. 25, 2021 15 Journal of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering Adsorption of Pharmaceutical Contaminants from Aqueous Solutions Using N,O-Carboxymethyl Chitosan/Polyethylene Oxide (PEO) Electrospun Nanofibers Amna Hassan Issa Khierallah 1 , Ilse Ileana Cardenas Bates 1 , Bruno Chabot 1 , André Lajeunesse 1,2,3 1 Institut d’Innovations en Écomatériaux, Écoproduits et Écoénergies (I2E3), Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières (QC), Canada 2 Département de Chimie, Biochimie et Physique, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières (QC), Canada 3 Centre de Recherche en Écotoxicologie du Québec (EcotoQ), Québec (QC), Canada Abstract Residues of pharmaceutical and direct metabolites discharged into the aquatic environment have become a challenge for wastewater treatment facilities due to their increase in concentration and their different physicochemical proper- ties. These emerging contaminants are daily detected in surface water and wastewater discharged by municipalities. To remediate the contaminated wa- ter, various methods are currently used including primary, secondary, and tertiary advanced treatments. However, some economic and environmental limitations have forced the scientific community to develop alternative disin- fection processes to purify wastewater. As such, the adsorption strategy represents a “green” low-cost and effective solution to remove pollutants from water. In this study, a nanomaterial made of N,O-carboxymethyl chito- san (N,O-CMCS) was prepared using chitosan (CS) and monochloroacetic acid under various conditions. N,O-CMCS electrospun was synthetized with the copolymer polyethylene oxide (PEO) to create nanofiber membranes showing a better specificity toward diversified contaminants depending on the pH of medium. The developed adsorbent was used to remove fluoxetine (FLX) from aqueous solutions. The new nanomaterial was characterised us- ing FTIR, NMR, and SEM techniques. Sorption batch tests were carried out using high-performance liquid chromatography and ultraviolet diode array detector (HPLC-UV DAD) under controlled pH experimental conditions to determine the contaminant removal capacity of the nanomaterial. The prom- How to cite this paper: Khierallah, A.H.I., Bates, I.I.C., Chabot, B. and Lajeunesse, A. (2021) Adsorption of Pharmaceutical Con- taminants from Aqueous Solutions Using N,O-Carboxymethyl Chitosan/Polyethylene Oxide (PEO) Electrospun Nanofibers. Jour- nal of Materials Science and Chemical Engi- neering, 9, 15-38. https://doi.org/10.4236/msce.2021.911003 Received: September 3, 2021 Accepted: November 22, 2021 Published: November 25, 2021 Copyright © 2021 by author(s) and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access