Insights into kinetics, thermodynamics, and mechanisms of chemically activated sunflower stem biochar for removal of phenol and bisphenol-A from wastewater.

This study synthesized a highly efficient KOH-treated sunflower stem activated carbon (KOH-SSAC) using a two-step pyrolysis process and chemical activation using KOH. The resulting material exhibited exceptional properties, such as a high specific surface area (452 m2/g) and excellent adsorption capacities for phenol (333.03 mg/g) and bisphenol A (BPA) (365.81 mg/g). The adsorption process was spontaneous and exothermic, benefiting from the synergistic effects of hydrogen bonding, electrostatic attraction, and stacking interactions. Comparative analysis also showed that KOH-SSAC performed approximately twice as well as sunflower stem biochar (SSB), indicating its potential for water treatment and pollutant removal applications. The study suggests the exploration of optimization strategies to further enhance the efficiency of KOH-SSAC in large-scale scenarios. These findings contribute to the development of improved materials for efficient water treatment and pollution control.

Efficiency of Ppy-PA-pani and Ppy-PA composite adsorbents in Chromium(VI) removal from aqueous solution.

In this study, first time the combination of composites with Phytic acid (PA) as the organic binder cross-linker is reported. The novel use of PA with single and double conducting polymers (polypyrrole (Ppy) and polyaniline (Pani)) were tested against removal of Cr(VI) from wastewater. Characterizations (FE-SEM, EDX, FTIR, XRD, XPS) were performed to study the morphology and removal mechanism. The adsorption removal capability of Polypyrrole - Phytic Acid - Polyaniline (Ppy-PA-Pani) was deemed to be higher than Polypyrrole - Phytic Acid (Ppy-PA) due to the mere existence of Polyaniline as the extra polymer. The kinetics followed 2nd order with equilibration at 480 min, but Elovich model confirmed that chemisorption is followed. Langmuir isotherm model exhibited maximum adsorption capacity of 222.7-321.49 mg/g for Ppy-PA-Pani and 207.66-271.96 mg/g for Ppy-PA at 298K-318K with R2 values of 0.9934 and 0.9938 respectively. The adsorbents were reusable for 5 cycles of adsorption-desorption. The thermodynamic parameter, ΔH shows positive values confirmed the adsorption process was endothermic. From overall results, the removal mechanism is believed to be chemisorption through Cr(VI) reduction to Cr(III). The use of phytic acid (PA) as organic binder with combination of dual conducting polymer (Ppy-PA-Pani) was invigorating the adsorption efficiency than just single conducting polymer (Ppy-PA).

Highly efficient surface sequestration of Pb2+ and Cr3+ from water using a Mn3O4 anchored reduced graphene oxide: Selective removal of Pb2+ from real water.

Owing to the ubiquitous existence of detrimental heavy metals in the environment, simple adsorption-oriented approaches are becoming increasingly appealing for the effective removal of Pb2+ and Cr3+ from water bodies. These techniques use nanocomposites (NC) of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and Mn3O4 (rGO-Mn3O4), they employ a hydrothermal technique featuring NaBH4 and NaOH solutions. Here, spectroscopic and microscopic instrumental techniques were used to evaluate the morphological and physicochemical characteristics of prepared reduced graphene oxide manganese oxide (rGO-Mn3O4), revealing that it possessed a well-defined porous structure with a specific surface area of 126 m2 g-1. The prepared rGO-Mn3O4 had significant adsorption efficiencies for Pb2+ and Cr3+, achieving maximum sequestration capacities of 130.28 and 138.51 mg g-1 for Pb2+ and Cr3+, respectively, according to the Langmuir model. These adsorption capacities are comparable to or greater than those of previously reported graphene-based materials. The Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second-order models adequately represented the experimental results. Thermodynamic analysis revealed that adsorption occurred through spontaneous endothermic reactions. Recycling studies showed that the developed r-GO-Mn3O4 had excellent recyclability, with <70% removal at the 5th cycle; its feasibility was evaluated using industrial wastewater, suggesting that Pb2+ was selectively removed from Pb2+ and Cr3+ contaminated water. The instrumental analysis and surface phenomena studies presented here revealed that the adsorptive removal processes of both heavy metals involved π electron donor-acceptor interactions, ion exchange, and electrostatic interactions, along with surface complexation. Overall, the developed rGO-Mn3O4 has the potential to be a high-value adsorbent for removing heavy metals.

Portable SA/CMC entrapped bimetallic magnetic fly ash zeolite spheres for heavy metals contaminated industrial effluents treatment via batch and column studies.

Heavy metals are perceived as a significant environmental concern because of their toxic effect, bioaccumulation, and persistence. In this work, a novel sodium alginate (SA) and carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) entrapped with fly ash derived zeolite stabilized nano zero-valent iron and nickel (ZFN) (SA/CMC-ZFN), followed by crosslinking with CaCl2, is synthesized and applied for remediation of Cu(II) and Cr(VI) from industrial effluent. The characterization of the adsorbent and its surface mechanism for removing metals were investigated using advanced instrumental techniques, including XRD, FT-IR, SEM-EDX, BET, and XPS. The outcomes from the batch experiments indicated that monolayer adsorption on homogeneous surfaces (Langmuir isotherm model) was the rate-limiting step in both heavy metals sorption processes. The maximum adsorption capacity of as-prepared SA/CMC-ZFN was 63.29 and 10.15 mg/g for Cu(II) and Cr(VI), respectively. Owing to the fact that the wastewater released from industries are large and continuous, a continuous column is installed for simultaneous removal of heavy metal ions from real industrial wastewater. The outcomes revealed the potential of SA/CMC-ZFN as an efficient adsorbent. The experimental breakthrough curves fitted well with the theoretical values of Thomas and Yoon-Nelson models. Overall, the results indicated that SA/CMC-ZFN is a viable, efficient, and cost-effective water treatment both interms of batch and column processes.

Magnetic-watermelon rinds biochar for uranium-contaminated water treatment using an electromagnetic semi-batch column with removal mechanistic investigations.

Biosorption using modified biochar has been increasingly adopted for the sustainable removal of uranium-contaminated from an aqueous solution. In this research study, the facile preparation and surface characteristics of magnetized biochar derived from waste watermelon rind to treat U(VI) contaminated water were investigated. The porosity, specific surface area, adsorption capacity, reusability, and stability were effectively improved after the magnetization of biochar. The kinetics and isotherm studies found that the U(VI) adsorption was rate-limiting monolayer sorption on the homogeneous surface of magnetized watermelon rind biochar (MWBC). The maximum adsorption capacity was found to be 323.56 mg of U(VI) per g of MWBC at pH 4.0 and 293 K that was higher than that of watermelon rind biochar (WBC) (135.86 mg g-1) and other sourced biochars. The surface interaction mechanism, environmental feasibility, applicability for real-filed water treatment studied in the electromagnetic semi-batch column, and reusability of MWBC were also explored. Furthermore, salient raised the ion exchange and complexation action capacity of MWBC due to the presence of Fe oxide. The overall results indicated that MWBC was not only inexpensive and had a high removal capacity for U(VI), but it also easily enabled phase separation from an aqueous solution, with more than three times reusability at a minimum removal capacity of 99%.

Facile synthesis of economical feasible fly ash-based zeolite-supported nano zerovalent iron and nickel bimetallic composite for the potential removal of heavy metals from industrial effluents.

Heavy metals contamination of water is one of the environmental issue globally. Thus prepared fly ash-based zeolite (FZA)-supported nano zerovalent iron and nickel (nZVI/Ni@FZA) bimetallic composite from low-cost fly ash waste for the potential treatment of anion (Cr(VI) and cation Cu(II)) heavy metals from industrial effluents at pH 3 and 5, respectively in this study. The systematic interaction between FZA and nZVI/Ni and the adsorptive removal mechanism was studied. The mean surface area of the nZVI/Ni@FZA (154.11 m2/g) was much greater than that of the FZA (46.6 m2/g) and nZVI (4.76 m2/g) independently, as determined by BET-N2 measurements. The effect of influence factors on the removal of Cr(VI) and Cu(II) by nZVI/Ni@FZA, such as pH effect, initial concentration effect, time effect, temperature effect, coexisting metals, and ionic strength, and cumulative loading ability, were discussed. The maximum adsorption capacity of nZVI/Ni@FZA was 48.31 mg/g and 147.06 mg/g towards Cr(VI) and Cu(II), respectively. These were higher than those of nZVI@FZA and FZA. It demonstrated that Ni could play an important role in enhancing the reduction ability of nZVI. Furthermore, isothermal and kinetic results revealed that both heavy metal adsorption processes were rate limiting monolayer Langmuir adsorption on homogeneous surfaces. Thermodynamic results suggested that the adsorptive removal of metal ions was endothermic with spontaneity. The applicability of nZVI/Ni@FZA on real industrial wastewater treatment results demonstrate that the concentration of heavy metals were removed under the acceptable standard levels. Further the adsorption capacity of nZVI/Ni@FZA was higher than the nZVI@FZA and FZA. The overall results demonstrated that nZVI/Ni@FZA was a promising, efficient, and economically feasible sorbent for potential wastewater treatment. Moreover this is first report on the preparation nZVI/Ni@FZA bimetallic composite.