Removal of Rhodamine dye from foodstuffs using column chromatography and isotherm study

Abstract

ABSTRACT For the past decades, the safety issues of the aquatic environment and human health from the pollutants still form a cause of great concern for a lot of researchers due to its threat to the safety of humans on earth. Rhodamine B is a highly toxic dye categorized as an illegal additive in foodstuff. The current work studied and tested the Iodo-polyurethane foam (I-PUF) as a solid phase for Rhodamine dye (RhB) removal from foodstuff and environmental samples. The characterization of I-PUF was studied by a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The adsorption behavior was studied via batch and column experiments. The isotherm was evaluated through different isotherm models (Langmuir, Freundlich, and Dubinin–Radushkevich (D-R)). The calculated Freundlich isotherm results confirmed significantly with the experimental data (R2 = 0.9986). The maximum RhB adsorption capacity was found as 22.2717 mg g−1. The performance of the sorbent-packed column was evaluated by the breakthrough capacity and critical capacity. The breakthrough and critical capacities were 1.65 and 1 mg g−1, respectively. Under the optimized parameters, the limit of detection (LOD) and the limit of quantification (LOQ) equals 0.2914 and 0.9713 mg L−1, respectively. An effective application was performed for environmental samples (well water) and foodstuff (cotton candy and Ice pops), where the recovery percentage varied between 94.5% and 97%.