Harnessing the power of iron-alumina-based ionic liquid composites for simultaneous removal of Congo red dye and microplastics

Abstract

Increased water shortage due to industrialization and population increase requires immediate action to address water contamination. Using dimethyl sulfate as a common anion, we synthesized imidazolium-based cations with varying chain lengths (Imidazole, 2-methyl imidazole, 2-ethyl imidazole, and 2-isopropyl imidazole). This allowed us to create novel room-temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) that can be stored and transported at room temperature. These RTILs were further modified to magnetic ionic liquid composites (MILCs) by adding iron-alumina composites. The synthesized RTILs and MILCs were further characterized using H-NMR, FTIR, TGA, SEM, and EDX techniques. The process of adsorption at varying parameters was studied for the removal of Congo red (CR) and microplastics using these materials. MILC-4 in results, demonstrated excellent adsorption effectiveness by reaching a high removal rate of 90% at a concentration of 10 ppm for CR. Furthermore, 10-μm polystyrene beads were successfully destroyed by the MILCs in about 30 min. Following the completion of 40 experimental data, an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model with three layers was used to accurately predict the removal of CR dye from an aqueous solution by MILCs. For the prediction and modeling of CR dye removal, the minimal mean squared error (MSE) of 0.051 and coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.97 were discovered. These numerical findings demonstrate the amazing effectiveness of the synthesized MILCs in combating water pollution issues. Overall, the study emphasizes the necessity of cleaner production methods and sustainable solutions provided by MILCs for CR dye and microplastics removal from water bodies.