Nanostructured modified biochar for effective elimination of chlorpyrifos from wastewater: Enhancement, mechanisms and performance

Abstract

Chlorpyrifos (CPF) is a human hazardous insecticide regularly found in surface and ground water due its wide use and can greatly endanger human health and aquatic ecosystems. Hence, developing green, low-cost, and effective adsorbents is urgently needed for CPF removal from contaminated water. In this study, novel nanostructured activated biochar based pomegranate peels (nABPP) was developed, characterized and assessed for its capability in CPF removal from wastewater. Langmuir and first order models best described adsorption equilibrium and kinetics data respectively. The maximum adsorption capacity of nABPP for CPF (100 mg/g) enhanced 25 times higher than that of bulk pomegranate peels (bPP) due to enlarged specific surface area and pore volume. Approximately 90% of CPF was adsorbed by nABPP within 10 min. The explored mechanisms of CPF adsorption onto nABPP revealed the dominance of hydrogen bonding, π–π interaction, hydrophobic and electrostatic interlinkage. The removal capability of nPPAB for CPF from real wastewater was 89.94% and 84.74% in batch and packed-bed reactor respectively. The efficient use of nPPAB up to five cycles ascertained its high potential, stability and superiority in remediating CPF contaminated water.