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which indicate that the adsorbent is of the physical type with adsorption of the contaminants on multiple sites at the same time in a multi- or monolayer pattern (depending on the concentration). Looking at thermodynamics, adsorption on AL: PVA nanofibres is a favourable, spontaneous and exothermic reaction. This information could be used for the design of a desorption method in which the fluoxetine can be retrieved safely, and the membrane reused for at least two more cycles. The adsorption of multiple pharmaceutical contaminants (fluoxetine, venlafaxine, carbamazepine and ibuprofen) showed that nanofibres have more affinity for alkaline compounds, which adsorb more given the right amount of possible intermolecular forces occurring. Hence, for remediation applications, it would become necessary to combine this adsorbent with another one for maximum retention efficiency.

The authors would like to thank the UQTR Foundation, the Innovations Institute

Research Group and the Forensic Research Group for their financial support during this study. Special thanks are addressed to Agnes Lejeune for her assistance during the collection of SEM images. All technicians at the UQTR are also acknowledged

for Ecomaterials, Ecoproducts and Ecoenergies Biomass Based, the EcotoQ

Acknowledgements

Sorption in 2020s

for their technical support.

No conflict of interest to declare.

Conflict of interest

40

Alexandre Camiré<sup>1</sup> , Bruno Chabot<sup>2</sup> and André Lajeunesse1,3,4\*

1 Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Physics, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Canada

2 Innovations Institute in Ecomaterials, Ecoproducts, and Ecoenergies Biomass Based (I2E3), Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Canada

3 Forensic Research Group, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Canada

4 EcotoQ Research Group, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Quebec, Canada

\*Address all correspondence to: andre.lajeunesse@uqtr.ca

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
