Ehsan Roufegari-Nejhad - Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Urmia University of Technology, Urmia, Iran
Arezoo Nejaei - Department of Environment, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran

Antibiotics are accumulated in soil and sediment and affect the function of the natural ecosystem in negative ways, reducing the rate of natural decomposition of pollutants through the production of antibiotic-resistant antiorganisms. Moreover, antibiotic-resistant genes can enter drinking water resources and cause antibiotic-resistant diseases. In this study, in order to remove tetracycline from aqueous solutions, a biodegradable and non-toxic natural polymer as a nanomagnetic adsorbent was produced using collagen-iron oxide nanoparticles (Fe3O4) compound. Effective factors in removal of tetracycline by nano-absorbent including absorbent dose (0.005-1g), contact time (10-150mins), initial tetracycline concentration (10-200mg/l) and pH level (3-11) were studied. The results showed that under the optimum adsorption conditions (adsorbent dose 1g, contact time 120 mins and pH level 11), tetracycline removal efficiency was higher than 95 percent. Nano-adsorbent reconstruction studies demonstrated that collagen-iron nanoparticles compound shows a perfect reusing capability up to three successful adsorptions. After the third cycle of adsorption- desorption, efficiency falls to 50 percent.

Iron oxide nanoparticles, Collagen, Tetracycline, Aqueous-solution