Investigation into synthesis of nanoparticles and waste derived biochar with further potential application for treatment of pollutants present in industrial wastewater

Abstract

Various categories of organic synthetic textile dyes are discharged into nearby water bodies through outlets of different manufacturing industrial units. These dyes are hazardous for human health, aquatic life and environment through short- and long-term exposure pathways in the food-chain, and some of these dyes are even carcinogenic, mutagenic and teratogenic. Through the research scopes of this study, we explored techniques of adsorption in treating industrial wastewater using mixed-metal oxides and waste-derived carbonaceous biochar materials. Overall, the broader objectives of this study were to synthesize and characterize nano-composite materials through co-precipitation method, and biochar materials through pyrolysis method to optimize adsorption process parameters, and to examine isotherm, kinetic and thermodynamic modeling in understanding mechanistic pathway of treatment. Instrumentation techniques of XRD, BET, VSM, FESEM-EDX, and FTIR were used in analyzing our synthesized materials, and parameters such as solution pH, amount of adsorbent, initial dye concentration, contact time, and temperature were configured during treatment through examining the adsorbent-adsorbate system. From investigation of multiple synthetic dyes with different set-up of materials in this study, it was observed that treatment mechanism agreed with monolayer adsorption and rate of treatment followed pseudo-second-order kinetics. The treatment process of this study was found to be endothermic and spontaneity in nature. The materials have good regeneration capability and showed scopes for reusability for further treatment in multiple cycles. The findings from this study paved the way forward to explore technological application through scaling-up approach using column-experimental set-up for treatment on fields for remediation of textile industrial effluents. newline