Hydrogel beads containing ginger extract mediated nano-zirconium as an adsorbent for fluoride removal from aqueous solution

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this research study, a new bio adsorbent has been developed by synthesis of zirconium nanoparticles using Zingiber officinale rhizome extract and its subsequent entrapment in calcium alginate-carrageenin hydro gel beads. The characterisation of synthesised nanoparticles were carried out using SEM, TEM, SAED, EDAX and FT-IR. The resulting Zr-alginate-carrageenin, hydrogel beads were further subjected to batch sorption studies. Various physicochemical parameters such as pH, contact time, biomass doses were optimised for maximum removal of fluoride from aqueous solution. Results revealed that composite so prepared could remove fluoride from aqueous solution up to 98.5%.The equilibrium study has been carried out to investigate the capacity of adsorption by applying the Langmuir and Freundlich model, respectively. The nature of adsorption was found to be endothermic, spontaneous and belonged to chemisorption as supported by Temkin and D-R isotherm studies.