Highly efficient adsorption of ciprofloxacin from aqueous solutions by waste cation exchange resin-based activated carbons: Performance, mechanism, and theoretical calculation.

This study focused on the preparation of a highly efficient activated carbon adsorbent from waste cation exchange resins through one-step carbonization to remove ciprofloxacin (CIP) from aqueous solutions. Scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared spectrometry, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were used to characterize the physicochemical properties of the carbonized materials. The CIP removal efficiency, influencing factors, and adsorption mechanisms of CIP on the carbonized resins were investigated. Density functional theory (DFT) computations were performed to elucidate the adsorption mechanisms. The CIP removal reached 93 % when the adsorbent dosage was 300 mg/L at 25 °C. The adsorption capacity of the carbonized resins to CIP gradually decreased with an increasing pH from 3.0 to 7.0 and sharply declined with a pH from 7.0 to 11.0. The adsorption process better fitted by the pseudo second-order kinetic and Langmuir models, indicating that the interaction between CIP and the carbonized resins was monolayer adsorption. The maximum adsorption capacity fitted by the Langmuir model was 384.4 mg/g at 25 °C. Microstructural analysis showed that the adsorption of CIP on the carbonized resins was a joint effect of H-bonding, ion exchange, and graphite-N adsorption. Computational results signified the strong H-bonding and ion exchange interactions existed between CIP and carbonized resins. The high adsorption and reusability suggest that waste cation exchange resin-based activated carbons can be used as an effective and reusable adsorbent for removing CIP from aqueous solutions.

Preparative separation of flavonoids in plant extract of Smilacis Glabrae Roxb. by high performance counter-current chromatography.

Four flavonoids, isoastilbin, astilbin, isoengelitin, and engelitin were isolated and purified simultaneously from Smilacis Glabrae Roxb. for the first time by high performance counter-current chromatography using a system consisting of n-hexane-n-butanol-water (1:2:3, v/v/v). A total of 392.6 mg of astilbin, 71.4 mg of isoastilbin, 47.4 mg of engelitin, and 10.3 mg of isoengelitin were purified from 1.89 g of the ethyl acetate extract of Smilacis Glabrae Roxb. in six runs, each at over 94.51% purity as determined by HPLC. The structures of the four compounds were identified by their retention time, the LC-ESI-MS(n) in the negative ion mode, and confirmed by (1)H-NMR experiments. The characteristic LC-ESI-MS fragmentation patterns of the four compounds were discussed.

Preparative separation of chromones in plant extract of Saposhnikovia divaricata by high-performance counter-current chromatography.

Four chromones, prim-O-glucosylcimifugin, 4'-O-ß-D-glucosyl-5-O-methylvisamminol, cimifugin and sec-O-glucosylhamaudol, were isolated and purified from Saposhnikovia divaricata for the first time by high-performance counter-current chromatography (HPCCC) using a system consisting of ethyl acetate/n-butanol/ethanol/water (1:1:0.1:2, v/v/v/v). The separation parameters were first performed on the analytical HPCCC and the optimized conditions were then scaled up to preparative HPCCC. A total of 72.1 mg of prim-O-glucosylcimifugin, 27 mg of 4'-O-ß-D-glucosyl-5-O-methylvisamminol, 14.1 mg of cimifugin and 1.1 mg of sec-O-glucosylhamaudol were purified from 960 mg of the n-butanol extract of S. divaricata, each at over 90% purity as determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The structures of four compounds were identified by their retention time, the liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS) in the positive ion mode, and confirmed by NMR. The characteristic LC-ESI-MS fragmentation patterns of the four compounds were discussed, and found to be a very specific and useful tool for the structural identification of chromones from S. divaricata.