Ciprofloxacin, a second generation fluoroquinolone antibiotic, is one of the top pharmaceutical contaminants in water and many approaches have been developed for the removal of ciprofloxacin in wastewater. In this study, ciprofloxacin adsorption is carried out using a low-cost silica xerogel synthesized by a simple sol-gel method. The effect of pH, contact time, initial concentration of ciprofloxacin and temperature on the adsorption of ciprofloxacin by the silica xerogel is investigated. At optimum adsorption conditions, the experimental data fits well to a Langmuir isotherm and a pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The maximum ciprofloxacin adsorption capacity is determined as 24.45 mg g⁻¹. Thermodynamic parameters show that ciprofloxacin adsorption by the silica xerogel is a spontaneous endothermic process. Moreover, reusability experiments reveal that the silica xerogel can be effectively used several times for ciprofloxacin adsorption. The promising results indicate that the silica xerogel can be regarded as potential adsorbent for ciprofloxacin removal.

环丙沙星是第二代氟喹诺酮类抗生素，是水中最主要的药物污染物之一，已开发出许多方法来去除废水中的环丙沙星。在这项研究中，环丙沙星的吸附是使用通过简单的溶胶-凝胶法合成的低成本二氧化硅干凝胶进行的。研究了 pH 值、接触时间、环丙沙星的初始浓度和温度对硅胶干凝胶吸附环丙沙星的影响。在最佳吸附条件下，实验数据与朗缪尔等温线和准二级动力学模型非常吻合。最大环丙沙星吸附容量确定为 24.45 mg g ^-1. 热力学参数表明，二氧化硅干凝胶吸附环丙沙星是一个自发吸热过程。此外，可重复使用性实验表明，二氧化硅干凝胶可以多次有效地用于环丙沙星吸附。有希望的结果表明二氧化硅干凝胶可被视为去除环丙沙星的潜在吸附剂。