A Comparative study on the Removal of different dyes from aqueous medium using Zinc Ferrite Nanocomposite and Rice Husk Adsorbents

Abstract

This research aimed to develop simple, inexpensive, and ecologically suitable adsorbents for removing dyes through adsorption. Thus, co-precipitation and in-situ polymerization techniques were utilised to produce polyaniline resulting in the synthesis of Zinc Ferrite Polyaniline Nanocomposite (ZF-PANI NC). Also, Rice Husk (RH) was also used as adsorbent. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and x-ray diffraction (XRD) experiments were carried out on ZF nanoparticles and ZF-PANI NC. The average grain size of ZF-PANI NC was 13 nm. When compared to RH that had been treated with sodium hydroxide (SHRH), RH seemed more crystalline. However, the crystalline nature of SHRH was slightly enhanced by the adsorptive Reactive Yellow (RY) dye, and the surface of SHRH appears uniform in the SEM images. Rhodamine B (RhB) dye adsorbance’s at known concentrations were measured using a UV–visible spectrophotometer and a calibration curve. Percent removal of RhB dye by ZF-PANI NC over time (0–45 min) and in the presence of various adsorbent doses (0.1–0.5 g) revealed that the percentage of dye removal rose when ZF-PANI NC dose was increased. At room temperature (25 °C), RY dye adsorption on RH and SHRH revealed only 65 % in 40 min, whereas SHRH removed 99 %. ZF-PANI NC was suitable as a reliable and affordable adsorbent for dye remediation from aqueous solution. SHRH and RH both performed better in adsorbing RY dye. A pseudo-2nd order kinetic approach with the Langmuir adsorption isotherm provided the best fit for the results. The low value of ΔG° demonstrated the viability of RY adsorption. SHRH and ZF-PANI NC have high adsorption efficiency compared to RH and ZF.