Porous Silica Nanoparticles from Rice Husk for the Elimination of Erichrome Black T (EBT) from Laboratory Waste Water

Abstract

Water effluents of various chemical laboratories are expected to consist of wide range of organic waste products whose removal is an arduous task and a serious concern with the objective of eradication of all the pollutants from laboratory waste water has been attempted to modify rice husk’s surface. The efficacy of the designed adsorbent derived using rice husk and its potential in removing the residual dyes has been evaluated in this research. Both raw silica and functionalized silica obtained from the rice husk have proved to possess greater ability than activated charcoal for the biosorption of dyes present in contaminated water. A comparative account of silica, functionalized silica and activated charcoal acting as biosorbent for a common acidic dye: EBT was studied using FT-IR, TEM, IR spectroscopy techniques for their characterization. It was also observed that adsorption tendency of adsorbent was governed by experimental condition directly. The variation in rates and thermodynamic factor also influences the adsorption efficiency. For the removal of EBT from waste water functionalized silica was revealed to be most efficient.