Adsorption of sulfonamides on lake sediments

Sulfonamides (SAs) are one class of the most widely used antibiotics around the world. Their fate and transport in the aquatic environment is of great concern. In this study, adsorption of four SAs—sulfadiazine (SD), sulfamethoxazole (SMZ), sulfadimethoxine (SDM) and sulfamethazine (SM2)—in single-solute and multi-solute systems on sediments of Dianchi (DC) Lake and Taihu (TH) Lake, China was investigated with batch experiments. In the single-solute adsorption system, the Langmuir model and the dual-mode model described the adsorption process better than the Freundlich model. Model fitness was better on DC sediment than on TH sediment. The order of adsorption capacity approximately followed a decreasing order of SDM>SD>SM2>SMZ on both sediments, which was likely attributed to the distinctly different water solubility of the four SAs. In the multi-solute system, the order of adsorption capacity was SM2>SDM>SD>SMZ, which was probably related to the compound speciation caused by the pH values of the experimental solution. In the multi-solute system, both competitive and cooperative adsorption played important roles in the adsorption of sulfonamides on sediments.