Abstract
Water pollution by toxic substances, such as dye molecules, remains a major environmental problem that needs to be solved. In the present work, the magnetic composite hydrogel based on the poly(2-(methacryloyloxy)-N-(2-hydroxyethyl)-N,N-dimethylethan-1-aminium bromide-co-N-isopropylacrylamide) copolymer with incorporated Fe3O4 particles ((poly(DMAEAB-co-NIPAm)@Fe3O4)) was prepared by an in situ synthesis technique for the efficient removal of dye molecules from water. The successfully synthesized magnetic hydrogel was characterized by FTIR, XRD, TGA, and TEM. The removal efficiency of the anionic dye bromophenol blue (BPB) and the cationic dye rhodamine B (RDM) by the prepared hydrogel adsorbents was evaluated. Various adsorption parameters, including the concentration of adsorbents and adsorption time, were also investigated. The results showed that the synthesized magnetic hydrogel had excellent BPB removal performance compared to the removal of RDM. The optimum adsorbent concentration for 0.5 mM BPB solution was approximately 0.5 g/L, and the removal efficiency was more than 99%. The kinetics data of BPB removal fitted well into the pseudo-2nd-order model, indicating that BPB dye adsorption involves chemical adsorption and physical adsorption. In addition, recycling studies were conducted to examine the reusability of the magnetic hydrogel for BPB removal for up to five cycles and the hydrogel could be reused without losing its high removal efficiency. The magnetic hydrogel poly(DMAEAB-co-NIPAm)@Fe3O4 with high removal efficiency, good selectivity, and reusability shows great potential for the removal of anionic dyes in wastewater treatment.
Highlights
The dyestuff industry is important to the economy and many other industrial sectors, because a large number of synthetic dyes are applied in textile, leather, printing, paper, cosmetic, and food industries
The dye removal efficiencies of P0@Fe3 O4, and P100@Fe3 O4 adsorbents were analyzed. They were investigated for removing bromophenol blue (BPB) and rhodamine B (RDM) dyes from aqueous solutions to study the adsorption parameters
The results showed that the removal efficiency of BPB dye increased with adsorption time, and the adsorption equilibrium was reached in approximately 30 min
Summary
The dyestuff industry is important to the economy and many other industrial sectors, because a large number of synthetic dyes are applied in textile, leather, printing, paper, cosmetic, and food industries. 10–15% of the dyes are eventually discharged into industrial effluents, becoming major environmental pollutants [1,2] These dye molecules or their metabolites may be highly toxic, potentially carcinogenic, and even cause organic mutations or allergies in exposed organisms. Compared with other treatment methods, the adsorption method has become the most effective technique to remove dye or heavy metal ions from wastewater in the chemical, pharmaceutical, biological, and environmental industries because of its advantages of being eco-friendly, simple to operate, low energy consuming, and exhibiting great performance [12,13]. There have been increasing studies to develop hydrogels for pollutant removal from water based on host–guest interactions. The regeneration properties of the hydrogel were investigated, demonstrating its potential reusability and simple fast separation characteristics in the adsorption and desorption of the dye molecules
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