Nasira Hussain, Shanza Shafaat, Ambreen Sarfraz, Muhammad Usman, Muhammad Saqib Khan, Asad Muhammad Khan, Rafaqat Ali Khan, Bilal Ahmad Zafar Amin, Muhammad Bilal, Ahson Jabbar Shaikh
Engineered hybrid iron-cobalt metal oxide nanoparticles for effective adsorption of malachite green dye
BACKGROUND
Hybrid iron and cobalt metal oxide nanoparticles are well known; however, are not optimized in terms of size and stability. We engineered these hybrid nanoparticles using the co-precipitation method and characterized them by various techniques, which are then used for the effective adsorption and removal of malachite green (MG) dye.
RESULTS
The ideal conditions for synthesis are determined to be 50:50 ratio of Fe2O3 and CoO, pH of 11, temperature range of 40 °C–60 °C, and reactant addition time of 20 min. These hybrid nanoadsorbents effectively eliminated MG dye from aqueous solutions. Factors such as initial MG dye concentration, pH of the medium, contact time, temperature, and nanoadsorbent dose were optimized for the MG removal to achieve a maximum removal efficiency of 96.9%. Non-linear fitting of data indicates that both Langmuir and Freundlich models provided the best fit, suggesting the presence of both monolayer and multilayer adsorption of MG on hybrid nanoparticles. The kinetics of MG dye removal are better controlled by the intraparticle diffusion (IPD) phenomenon. The adsorption of MG onto the hybrid nanoparticles was confirmed to be endothermic, with negative ΔG and positive ΔH values. The optimized synthetic conditions also positively impacted the hybrid nanoparticles which enhanced the adsorption and exhibited ferromagnetic behavior as compared to the superparamagnetic behavior reported in the literature, making them significantly important for dye removal applications.
期刊介绍:
Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology(JCTB) is an international, inter-disciplinary peer-reviewed journal concerned with the application of scientific discoveries and advancements in chemical and biological technology that aim towards economically and environmentally sustainable industrial processes.