Rapid Removal of Methylene Blue in Water Using Polymer-Based Biochar Nanocomposite-Coated Filters

Abstract

In this study, the effectiveness of novel nanocomposite-coated filters consisting of biochar (BC) functionalized with sodium alginate (SA) and poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) was investigated for methylene (MB) blue removal. The filters were fabricated via a dip-coating method and SEM and FTIR spectroscopy confirmed the successful coating of the filters. The impact of the nanocomposite formulation and the operating parameters (initial pH and MB concentration) on the performance of the coated filters were studied. A nanocomposite composition consisting of 1.0 wt.% SA, 2.0 wt.% PVA, and 1000 ppm BC were found to be optimum, reaching as high as 96.51% MB removal. The fabricated filters were determined to be robust over a wide range of pH and initial MB concentrations. The Sips isotherm model proved to be the best-fit model for MB adsorption, where chemisorption dominates at low MB concentrations, while physisorption dominates at high MB concentrations. The filters have a maximum sorption capacity of 54.5198 mg g-1 and showed good reusability. Overall, our synthesized SA/PVA/BC-coated filters can be used to effectively remove dyes in wastewater over a wide range of operating conditions.