Decolorisation of Reactive Red 120 Dye by Using Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes in Aqueous Solutions

Sustainable use of low-cost adsorbents prepared from waste fruit peels for the removal of selected reactive and basic dyes found in wastewaters

Agricultural wastes are potential sustainable adsorbents since they are available in large quantities, are low-cost, and may require little or no treatment, in some cases. In this study, several fruit peels, such as banana, orange, and pomegranate, were collected from local markets and prepared by a simple and eco-friendly method and used as natural adsorbents for the removal of both anionic (Reactive Red 120 (RR120), Reactive Black 5 (RB5), Remazol Brilliant Blue R (RBBR)) and cationic Methylene Blue (MB) dyes found in wastewaters. Many industries, such as leather and textiles, can release huge amounts of synthetic dyes into the wastewater during dyeing processes. These are one of the most important pollutants of water pollution as they cause enormous damage to the water body and also affect the health of organisms due to their toxicity and carcinogenicity. The search for a sustainable and at the same time efficient material for the removal of a wide variety of dyes is the innovation of this work. These peels were prepared by washing, drying, grinding, and finally sieving, under natural sustainable conditions. Porosometry (BET analysis), FTIR, SEM/EDS, and XRD techniques were used to characterize the fruit peels before and after the adsorption process. Factors affecting the adsorption of dyes (adsorbent dosage, pH solution, initial concentration of dyes, contact time, and temperature) were investigated. According to the results, in terms of the effectiveness of fruit peels as (natural) adsorbent materials, for anionic dyes, 5.0-6.0 g/L of banana or orange dry peels was sufficient to remove near or even more than 90% anionic dyes at pH 2.0, and 4.0 g/L was sufficient to remove 98% of cationic MB dye at pH 9.0. Similar amount of pomegranate peels had lower efficiency for anionic dyes (50-70%), while cationic MB was still efficiently removed (98%) at pH 9.0. Moreover, the adsorption process in all cases was found to better fit to pseudo-second-order model, in comparison to pseudo-first-order model. According to isotherms, Freundlich model fitted better in some cases to the equilibrium data, while the Langmuir model in others. Finally, this study demonstrates the viability of reusing the banana, orange, and pomegranate peel adsorbents for eight, four, and five cycles, showing a gradual reduction of around 50% of their effectiveness.

Adsorption and Degradation of Organics in Wastewater on Municipal Sludge

Adsorption and degradation of organic compounds on sludge were investigated by comparing activated and inactivated sludge at various dosages, pH values, and temperatures. The organic compounds in wastewater were identified and evaluated through fluorescence spectra. The results show that optimum adsorption occurred as the activated and inactivated sludge concentration was 4000 mg/L at a pH of 7.99 and a temperature of 30 °C. The fluorescence scanning spectrum indicated that activated sludge could remove protein-like organic matter, fulvic acid-like organic matter, and humic acid-like organic matter by 22.1, 9.4, and 41.2%, respectively, via adsorption only or by 25.9, 9.8, and 74.3%, respectively, via adsorption and degradation. Under optimum conditions, by using the good adsorption performance of sludge combined with other sewage treatment technologies, the treatment of high-content organic wastewater can be achieved.

Removal of phenol from aqueous solution by coupling alternating current with biosorption

The present research was devoted to water decontamination through the valorization of cellulosic fibers for the preparation of performing biosorbent, with high pollutant-uptake capacity and low cost. Luffa cylindrica (L.C) and zinc oxide were chosen for the synthesis of hybrid materials by precipitation with and without alternating current (AC). AC was used as a new alternative able to accelerate the reaction kinetics and to enhance the biosorption speed. The potential to remove phenol, from aqueous solution by coupling biosorption and AC, was highlighted. Pure L.C and hybrid materials (L.C + 4% Zn²⁺) synthesized with and without AC were chosen for the biosorption tests. The effects of pH, initial concentration, frequency, and contact time were studied. The efficiency of the coupling process was evaluated according to the quality of the treated water before and after purification. Results have shown that the percentages of chemical oxygen demand (COD), total organic carbon (TOC), germination indexes, and phenol removals have increased when adopting the coupling process. The maximal uptakes of phenol reached 15.4, 28.07, and 28.9 mg g^-1 for a concentration of 30 mg L^-1 of phenol, respectively, for raw L.C, L.C + 4% Zn²⁺ + AC, and L.C + 4% Zn²⁺ at pH = 2. Quantitative and qualitative characterizations confirmed the efficiency of the synthesized hybrid materials compared with pure L.C. The fractal model of Brouers Sotolongo was chosen for the description of the random distribution of the active sites. The kinetic and isotherm data showed a good correlation with the experimental results.

Studying the Adsorptive Behavior of Poly(Acrylonitrile-co-Styrene) and Carbon Nanotubes (Nanocomposites) Impregnated with Adsorbent Materials towards Methyl Orange Dye

In this study, a polymeric (acrylonitrile-co-styrene) P(AN-co-St) composite was impregnated with adsorbents, such as sulfonated and multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), to increase the adsorptive characteristics of the nanocomposite upon the removal of methyl orange (MO) dye under different conditions. A novel nanocomposite copolymer mixture of P(AN-co-St) and SP(AN-co-St) was used. MWCNTs were prepared by a low-cost chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process. Variation in MO adsorption onto the three nanocomposites was examined in an aqueous solution via the batch technique with respect to contact time, initial MO concentration, adsorbent dosage, pH, and temperature. The surface of the nanocomposites was characterized by a scanning electron microscope (SEM), particle size distribution (PSD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), and Raman analysis. The experimental data showed that the efficiency of P(AN-co-St)/ MWCNT removal increased under the conditions of an acidic pH (3 and 5) with an agitation speed of 140 rpm, a sorbent weight of 0.01 g, and 20 mg of initial dye. The maximum sorption capacities were 121.95, 48.78, and 47.84 mg g-1 for the P(AN-co-St)/ MWCNTs, SP(AN-co-St), and P(AN-co-St) composites, respectively, as assessed by the Langmuir model. Additional isotherm models, such as the Freundlich, Temkin, and Halsey models, were used to examine the experimental data. A pseudo-second-order model was found to be more fitting for describing the sorption.

Sustainable Synthesis of MOF-5@GO Nanocomposites for Efficient Removal of Rhodamine B from Water

Herein, a metal-organic framework (MOF-5) is synthesized by a solvothermal process and graphene oxide (GO) is prepared from the improved Hummer's method. The synthesis of MOF-5@GO nanocomposites is one-pot process via a grinding method and employed for the removal of Rhodamine B (RhB) dye. The removal efficiency of RhB is found to be 60.64% (151.62 mg·g-1) at 500 ppm. About 98.88% of RhB is removed within 5 min of contact time and increased up to 99.68% up to 10 min. The removal rate of MOF-5@GO nanocomposites is much better than that of pristine MOF-5. Equilibrium adsorption capacity is determined by a series of different experimental conditions such as pH, time, and concentration of dye solution. Although the results also showed that dye removal on MOF-5@GO nanocomposites is well described by the Langmuir isotherm (R 2 = 0.9703), the adsorption kinetics data reveals pseudo-second-order (R 2 = 0.9908). The synthesized nanocomposite is efficient for removal of dye, cost-effective, and reusable. Additionally, stability and self-degradation studies of pure RhB are reported in aqueous solution for up to 120 days at different pH values (pH 1-12).

Effects of catalyst preparation method and reaction parameters on the ultrasound assisted Photocatalytic oxidation of reactive yellow 84 dye

In this study, the Heterogeneous Sono-photocatalytic Process was used to degrade Reactive Yellow 84 (RY 84) dye dissolved in water over iron containing TiO₂ and TiO₂-Ce catalysts. The catalysts were prepared by sol-gel and incipient wetness impregnation methods and characterized using XRD, SEM, Nitrogen adsorption, UV-Vis DRS and ICP-AES measurements. The TiO₂ catalyst containing 1% (in weight) iron, prepared by incipient wetness impregnation technique and calcined at 300 °C (1%Fe/TiO₂-300 °C (IW)) was found to be the most effective catalyst. Parametric study was carried out over this catalyst and COD removal of 55% and TOC removal of 38% were achieved while the decolorization efficiency reached 100% after 45 min of reaction at the optimum conditions of, (25 mg/L of RY 84 solution, 0.5 g/L of catalyst, 5 mM of H₂O₂, a temperature of 25 °C, pH = 6 and US at a power of 40 W). Decolorization of RY 84 obeyed the first order kinetics with an activation energy of 20.7 kJ/mol. Sonication increased the decolorization efficiency of the heterogeneous Fenton process (UV + Catalyst+H₂O₂) from 92.7% to 97.5% after 30 min of reaction, with the COD and TOC reductions increasing from 87% to 90% and 48% to 57% after 120 min of reaction, respectively. US also decreased the toxicity of the RY 84 dye. The results obtained from this study show that, iron containing TiO₂ and TiO₂-Ce catalysts could be efficiently used in the hybrid process of ultrasound assisted heterogeneous photocatalytic oxidation in a wide range of experimental conditions.

Synthesized Cr/TiO2 immobilized on pumice powder for photochemical degradation of acid orange-7 dye under UV/visible light: influential operating factors, optimization, and modeling

The current study aimed to investigate the removal efficiency of acid orange-7 (AO7) using synthesized Cr/TiO₂ immobilized on pumice powder under visible light and UV irradiation. The characterization of synthesized nanocatalyst examined by scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffraction, and Fourier transforms infrared. The optimum of experimental parameters including catalyst dosage, dye concentration, time and pH, D-optimal Design (DOD) along with response surface methodology obtained by R software. The initial and outlet concentration was measured using a spectrophotometer. Besides, Analysis of variance results for the quadratic model showed simple linear regression with high significance and provided as a predicting model. The differences less than 0.2 between multiple and adjusted R² in two models indicate that two examined models fitted suitably. The highest removal efficiency of AO7 was 95 and 74% under visible and UV irradiation, respectively. Therefore, the higher removal efficiency in visible light reduces the costs and energy, moreover, offers an environmentally friendly method. The results showed that the removal efficiency of AO7 increased considerably with rising catalyst dosage and time, as well as minimizing dye concentration, and pH.

Synthesis of novel biocomposite powder for simultaneous removal of hazardous ciprofloxacin and methylene blue: Central composite design, kinetic and isotherm studies using Brouers-Sotolongo family models

Over the past decades, extensive efforts have been made to use biomass-based-materials for wastewater-treatment. The first purpose of this study was to develop and characterize regenerated-reed/reed-charcoal (RR-ChR), an enhanced biosorbent from Tunisian-reed (Phragmites-australis). The second aim was to assess and optimize the RR-ChR use for the removal of binary ciprofloxacin antibiotic (CIP) and methylene blue dye (MB), using Central Composite Design under Response Surface methodology. The third purpose was to explain the mechanisms involved in the biosorption-process. The study revealed that the highest removal-percentages (76.66 % for the CIP and 100 % for the MB) were obtained under optimum conditions: 1.55 g/L of adsorbent, 35 mg/L of CIP, 75 mg/L of MB, a pH of 10.42 and 115.28 min contact time. It showed that the CIP biosorption mechanism was described by Brouers-Sotolongo-fractal model, with regression-coefficient (R²) of 0.9994 and a Person's Chi-square (X²) of 0.01. The Hill kinetic model better described the MB biosorption (R² = 1 and X² = 1.0E-4). The isotherm studies showed that the adsorbent surface was heterogeneous and the best nonlinear-fit was obtained with the Jovanovich (R² = 0.9711), and Brouers-Sotolongo (R² = 0.9723) models, for the CIP and MB adsorption, respectively. Finally, the RR-ChR lignocellulosic-biocomposite-powder could be adopted as efficient and cost-effective adsorbent.

Data on bioassay of toxicity reduction of treated textile wastewater by using nanophotocatalytic process by Daphnia magna

Practicability and possibility of photocatalytic degradation of Ro16 textile dye and the actual wastewater of textile were studied on pilot scale. The amount of reduction in solution toxicity was studied and assessed by the application of a bioassay using Daphnia magna. The solution toxicity at the beginning of the process has an increasing procedure and this is caused by the intermediate products that are produced during the photocatalytic process from the mother compounds, and are more toxic compared to them, and their toxicity declines at the end of the process with the completion of mineralization. The procedure of toxicity increase and its decrease in the course of photocatalytic process has a direct relation with the amount of mineralization.

Removal of two anionic reactive textile dyes by adsorption into MgAl-layered double hydroxide in aqueous solutions

Textile dyes pose a significant challenge for water pollution due to the poor degradability of their complex aromatic structures (e.g., RR-120 and RBB-150). In order to minimize the harmful effects of RR-120 and RBB-150, the capacity of MgAl-layered double hydroxide for removing of these contaminants was studied herein. Batch adsorption experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of various operating parameters, such as solution pH, contact time, dye concentration, and temperature in order to provide optimal conditions for removal. Structural and morphological analyses were used to highlight the assembly and/or interaction LDH-dye. The state of equilibrium of RR-120 and RBB-150 adsorption was pH- and temperature-dependent and followed the pseudo-second-order rate model. Also, the equilibrium adsorption data of both dyes were found to adopt the Langmuir type isotherm model, which assumes a monolayer arrangement in LDH-dye. Furthermore, the effects of four major coexisting and competing mono- and divalent interlayer anions, such as NO₃^-, Cl^-, CO₃^2-, and SO₄^2-, on the uptakes of RR-120 and RBB-150 were studied and the results showed that NO₃^- anions had insignificant effect on the uptakes of RR-120 and RBB-150 by MgAl. An equivalent study on the presence of both dyes in competitive trial adsorption/desorption from binary aqueous solution was investigated. And finally, the reuse operation of recovered material after dye adsorption was tested in up to 5 cycles of recyclability.

Adsorptive Removal of Benzene and Toluene from Aqueous Environments by Cupric Oxide Nanoparticles: Kinetics and Isotherm Studies

Removal of benzene and toluene, as the major pollutants of water resources, has attracted researchers’ attention, given the risk they pose to human health. In the present study, the potential of copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO-NPs) in eliminating benzene and toluene from a mixed aqueous solution was evaluated. For this, we performed batch experiments to investigate the effect of solution pH (3–13), dose of CuO-NPs (0.1–0.8 g), contact time (5–120 min), and concentration of benzene and toluene (10–200 mg/l) on sorption efficiency. The maximum removal was observed at neutral pH. By using the Langmuir model, we measured the highest adsorption capacity to be 100.24 mg/g for benzene and 111.31 mg/g for toluene. Under optimal conditions, adsorption efficiency was 98.7% and 92.5% for benzene and toluene, respectively. The sorption data by CuO-NPs well fitted into the following models: Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin, and Dubinin-Radushkevich model. The experimental information well fitted in the Freundlich for benzene and Langmuir for toluene. Based on the results, adsorption followed pseudo-second-order kinetics with acceptable coefficients. The findings introduced CuO-NPs as efficient compounds in pollutants adsorption. In fact, they could be used to develop a simple and efficient pollutant removal method from aqueous solutions.

Environmental application of nanotechnology: air, soil, and water

Global deterioration of water, soil, and atmosphere by the release of toxic chemicals from the ongoing anthropogenic activities is becoming a serious problem throughout the world. This poses numerous issues relevant to ecosystem and human health that intensify the application challenges of conventional treatment technologies. Therefore, this review sheds the light on the recent progresses in nanotechnology and its vital role to encompass the imperative demand to monitor and treat the emerging hazardous wastes with lower cost, less energy, as well as higher efficiency. Essentially, the key aspects of this account are to briefly outline the advantages of nanotechnology over conventional treatment technologies and to relevantly highlight the treatment applications of some nanomaterials (e.g., carbon-based nanoparticles, antibacterial nanoparticles, and metal oxide nanoparticles) in the following environments: (1) air (treatment of greenhouse gases, volatile organic compounds, and bioaerosols via adsorption, photocatalytic degradation, thermal decomposition, and air filtration processes), (2) soil (application of nanomaterials as amendment agents for phytoremediation processes and utilization of stabilizers to enhance their performance), and (3) water (removal of organic pollutants, heavy metals, pathogens through adsorption, membrane processes, photocatalysis, and disinfection processes).

Sonocatalytic degradation of humic acid by N-doped TiO2 nano-particle in aqueous solution

Background

Un-doped and N-doped TiO₂ nano-particles with different nitrogen contents were successfully synthesized by a simple sol–gel method, and were characterized by X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, Energy dispersive X-ray analysis and UV–visible diffuse reflectance spectra techniques. Then enhancement of sonocatalytic degradation of humic acid by un-doped and N-doped TiO₂ nano-particles in aqueous environment was investigated. The effects of various parameters such as initial concentration of humic acid, N-doping, and the degradation kinetics were investigated.

Results

The results of characterization techniques affirmed that the synthesis of un-doped and N-doped TiO₂ nano-particles was successful. Degradation of humic acid by using different nano-particles obeyed the first-order kinetic. Among various nano-particles, N-doped TiO₂ with molar doping ratio of 6 % and band gap of 2.92 eV, exhibited the highest sonocatalytic degradation with an apparent-first-order rate constant of 1.56 × 10^-2 min⁻¹.

Conclusions

The high degradation rate was associated with the lower band gap energy and well-formed anatase phase. The addition of nano-catalysts could enhance the degradation efficiency of humic acid as well as N-doped TiO₂ with a molar ratio of 6 %N/Ti was found the best nano-catalyst among the investigated catalysts. The sonocatalytic degradation with nitrogen doped semiconductors could be a suitable oxidation process for removal of refractory pollutants such as humic acid from aqueous solution.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40201-016-0242-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Acute Toxicity Assessment of Reactive Red 120 to Certain Aquatic Organisms

Laboratory experiments were conducted to evaluate the acute toxicity of a widely used textile dye namely Reactive Red 120 (RR 120) on certain aquatic species such as Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata (green alga), Lemna gibba (duck weed), Daphnia magna (water flea) and Oncorhynchus mykiss (Rainbow trout). All experiments were performed as per the OECD Guidelines for Testing of Chemicals. The toxicity end points of EC50, LC50, NOEC and LOEC for RR 120 were determined with 95% confidence limits using TOX STAT version 3.5. The EC50 of RR 120 for green alga, duck weed and water flea are >100.00, 64.34, 10.40 mg L(-1), respectively and LC50 for Rainbow trout is 78.84 mg L(-1). Based on the results, the test item RR 120 could be classified as non-toxic to green alga, harmful to duck weed and Rainbow trout, toxic to water flea.

Efficient removal of Eriochrome black-T from aqueous solution using NiFe2O4 magnetic nanoparticles

The magnetic NiFe2O4 nanoparticles have been synthesized and used as adsorbents for removal of an azo dye, Eriochrome black-T (EBT) from aqueous solution. The NiFe2O4 nanoparticles were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), Transmission electron microscope (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR). The adsorption studies were carried out under various parameters, such as pH, adsorbent dosage, contact time and initial dye concentration. The experimental results show that the percentage of adsorption increases with an increase in the adsorbent dosage. The maximum adsorption occurred at the pH value of 6.0. The equilibrium uptake was increased with an increase in the initial dye concentration in solution. Adsorption kinetic data were properly fitted with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The experimental isotherms data were analyzed using Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm equations. The best fit was obtained by the Langmuir model with high correlation coefficients (R(2) = 0.9733) with a maximum monolayer adsorption capacity of 47.0 m g/g.

A Comparative Study of the Adsorption of Methylene Blue onto Synthesized Nanoscale Zero-Valent Iron-Bamboo and Manganese-Bamboo Composites

In this study, bamboo impregnated with nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI) and nanoscale manganese (nMn) were prepared by the aqueous phase borohydride reduction method and characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and PIXE analysis. The synthesized nMn-bamboo and nZVI-bamboo composites were subsequently applied to the sorption of methylene blue (MB) dye from aqueous solution. The adsorption of MB dye was investigated under various experimental conditions such as pH, contact time, initial concentration of MB dye and adsorbent dosage. The results showed that the synthesized nZVI-bamboo composite was more effective than nMn-bamboo composite in terms of higher MB dye adsorption capacity of 322.5 mg/g compared to 263.5 mg/g of nMn-bamboo composite. At a concentration of 140 mg/L MB dye, 0.02 g of nZVI-bamboo and nMn-bamboo composites resulted in 79.6% and 78.3% removal, respectively, at 165 rpm, contact time of 120 min and at a solution pH of 7.6. The equilibrium data was best represented by Freundlich isotherm model and the pseudo-second order kinetic model better explained the kinetic data for both nZVI-bamboo and nMn-bamboo composites.

Arsenic Removal from Aqueous Solutions bySalvadora persicaStem Ash

Arsenic is a naturally occurring metalloid, which is widely distributed in nature and is regarded as the largest mass poisoning in history. In the present study, the adsorption potential ofSalvadora persica(S. persica) stem ash in a batch system for the removal of As(V) from aqueous solutions was investigated. Isotherm studies were carried out to evaluate the effect of contact time (20–240 min), pH (2–11), initial arsenic concentration (50–500 μg/L), and adsorbent dose on sorption efficiency. Maximum removal efficiency of 98.33% and 99.32% was obtained at pH 6, adsorbent dosage 3.5 g/L, initial As(V) concentration 500 μg/L, and contact time 80 and 60 min forS. persicastem ash at 300 °C and 500 °C, respectively. Also, the adsorption equilibriums were analyzed by the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. Such equilibriums showed that the adsorption data was well fitted with the Freundlich isotherm model forS. persicastem ash at both 300 °C and 500 °C (R2=0.8983and 0.9274, resp.). According to achieved results, it was defined thatS. persicastem ash can be used effectively for As(V) removal from the aqueous environment.