Removal of anionic dye from textile effluent using zirconium phosphate loaded polyaniline-graphene oxide composite: Lab to pilot scale evaluation

Abstract

Efficient filtering of dyes is essential for the protection of ecosystem and human health due to the considerable water pollution caused by the effluents released from the sector. We present a simple, scalable UV radiation-assisted method for treating methyl orange dye-polluted water from the textile industry using zirconium phosphate-loaded polyaniline-graphene oxide (PGZrP) composite. The new material was synthesized by sonochemically incorporating a polyaniline-graphene oxide composite with hydrothermally synthesized zirconium phosphate. The efficacy of PGZrP in eliminating methyl orange was evaluated using experimental conditions, and the adsorption capacity was investigated as a function of pH, temperature, adsorbent dosage, and adsorption period. The system follows Langmuir adsorption isotherm with pseudo-second-order kinetics. Thermodynamics studies showed that enthalpy (H°) and entropy (S°) values are positive, indicating that the dye adsorption increases with increasing temperature and is an endothermic reaction. The maximum adsorption capacity was found to be 36.45379 mg/g for methyl orange. Using the COMSOL Multiphysics CFD Platform, an attempt was made to check the temperature and concentration profile of a PGZrP composite in a real industrial system. The predicted result shows that there is no significant temperature change in the material during the adsorption process and the concentration of dye is mainly located on the top region of the bed. The developed zirconium phosphate decorated polyaniline-graphene oxide composite can be successfully utilized for the effective removal of methyl orange from industrial wastewater in bulk quantity which is coming from the textile industry, and the composite can be reused for several cycles with good efficiency. In this work, we have designed a miniaturized proof of concept to remove methyl orange from water which showed good dye removal efficiency.