Luffa-Ni/Al layered double hydroxide bio-nanocomposite for efficient ibuprofen removal from aqueous solution:...

Luffa is a robust, renewable biomaterial known for its low mass, high specific strength, and non-toxicity, making it ideal for composite development. This study modified luffa to create the LF@ppy@LDH nanocomposite, combining luffa, polypyrrole, and layered double hydroxides to efficiently remove ibuprofen from water. Techniques like FE-SEM, EDX, FTIR, and XRD confirmed the modification. To optimize adsorption efficiency, factors such as contact time $$ , adsorbent dosage $$ , drug concentration $$ , temperature ( $$ , stirring rate $$ , and pH were carefully fine-tuned to maximize efficiency. The highest ibuprofen removal occurred at pH 5, with an adsorption capacity of 44.306 mg/g at 298 K. The Temkin isotherm model, which points to chemisorption as the mechanism, accurately depicted the adsorption process with a high correlation coefficient (R² = 0.984). Moreover, the Elovich kinetic model proved to be the most precise in describing how ibuprofen adheres to the modified luffa, showing a very tight fit with the data (R² = 0.993). LF@ppy@LDH demonstrated outstanding reusability, maintaining steady adsorption over five repeated rounds. In addition, a powerful data-driven model, namely gene expression programming (GEP), was employed to provide an explicit formula relating input variables to removal efficiency, highlighting the potential of LF@ppy@LDH for water purification and environmental remediation.