Abstract
Enhancing the rate of decomposition or removal of organic dye by designing novel nanostructures is a subject of intensive research aimed at improving waste-water treatment in the textile and pharmaceutical industries. Despite radical progress in this challenging area using iron-based nanostructures, enhancing stability and dye adsorption performance is highly desirable. In the present manuscript alkali cations are incorporated into iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) to tailor their structural and magnetic properties and to magnify methyl blue (MB) removal/decomposition capability. The process automatically functionalizes the IONPs without any additional steps. The plausible mechanisms proposed for IONPs incubated in alkali chloride and hydroxide solutions are based on structural investigation and correlated with the removal/adsorption capabilities. The MB adsorption kinetics of the incubated IONPs is elucidated by the pseudo second-order reaction model. Not only are the functional groups of –OH and –Cl attached to the surface of the NPs, the present investigation also reveals that the presence of alkali cations significantly influences the MB adsorption kinetics and correlates with the cation content and atomic polarizability.
Highlights
The enormous quantities of waste water produced every year due to the extensive use of organic dyes in the pharmaceutical, food, rubber, pesticide, cosmetic and textile industries are a great threat to the environment [1,2,3]
The morphology of the as-synthesized iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) was examined by direct observation via Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and a representative TE micrograph is displayed in figure 1(a)
The as-synthesized IONPs reveal the presence of both phases of cubic iron oxide: maghemite and magnetite
Summary
The enormous quantities of waste water produced every year due to the extensive use of organic dyes in the pharmaceutical, food, rubber, pesticide, cosmetic and textile industries are a great threat to the environment [1,2,3]. Methyl blue (C37H27N3Na2O9S3) is one such commonly used dye that is toxic and nonbiodegradable, and its release into the environment causes severe destruction of the aquatic ecosystem, increasing the chemical/biological oxygen demand of water bodies and reducing light penetration and affecting photosynthesis. It is highly visible and undesirable even when a small amount of dye is present and poses a serious threat to the human population due to mutagenic and carcinogenic effects [6, 7]. The search for appropriate adsorbents or catalysts is receiving significant attention
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