Pharmaceutical pollutants like ciprofloxacin (CPF) pose environmental risks due to their persistence and limited removal by conventional treatment methods. To address this, a hydrous zirconium oxide-inulin (HZO-inulin) biomaterial was synthesized via wet precipitation and characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis-difference thermal analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area analysis, scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. HZO-inulin exhibited high chemical stability under various aquatic conditions. CPF adsorption was optimized using the Box-Behnken design with a desirability function approach, achieving 99.28% removal and a maximum adsorption capacity of 181.46 mg/g under optimal conditions (adsorbent dose = 0.01 g, concentration = 85 mg/L, contact time = 35 min). Isotherm analysis using classical and statistical physics models revealed that the Freundlich model best fit the data, suggesting multilayer adsorption, while statistical physics model 2 indicated monolayer adsorption with two energy levels (