Novel Ganga-sand-encapsulated polyaniline granules for effective remediation of textile and pharmaceutical wastewater

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study presents the use of novel Ganga-sand-encapsulated polyaniline granules for effective remediation of textile and pharmaceutical wastewater. The prepared Ganga-sand-encapsulated polyaniline granules were characterised using scanning electron microscope (morphology) and Fourier transform infrared techniques. The effect of adsorbent dose, contact time, pH and concentration influence on the adsorption performance of Ganga-sand-encapsulated polyaniline granules for the removal of methylene blue dye (textile waste) and doxycycline antibiotic (pharmaceutical waste) was studied. Kinetic and isotherm studies were also carried out to investigate the adsorption process further. The maximum adsorptive removal efficacy of methylene blue and doxycycline was found as 98.2% and 85.1%, respectively, at the optimised condition of adsorbent dose: 8 g/L, time: 120 min, pH: 12 and concentration: 50 ppm. From adsorption kinetics, it was established that the adsorption process followed pseudo-second-order (PSO) rather than pseudo-first-order (PFO). The correlation coefficient values for PFO and PSO models were 0.9012 and 0.9992, respectively, for methylene blue dye adsorption on Ganga-sand-encapsulated polyaniline granules. The adsorption isotherm study established that the adsorption process followed the Langmuir model rather than the Freundlich model. This study found that Ganga-sand-encapsulated polyaniline granules can be a promising adsorbent for textile and pharmaceutical wastewater treatment.