Removal of toxic ions from aqueous solutions by surfactant-assisted biopolymeric hybrid membrane: Synthesis, characterization and toxic ions removal performance

Abstract

In this study is to propose that for the removal of phosphate and nitrate ions from aqueous solutions using zirconium burdened carboxymethylcellulose-surfactant assisted kaolin (Zr-CMC-SKa) membrane as an effective adsorbent. The prepared membrane was synthesized by phase inversion method via polyethylene glycol as a flexible reagent and the developed membrane was extensively characterized by the details of the terms like morphological, compositional, thermal, roughness, functional and microscopic techniques. The optimization of various operating experimental conditions like the function of time, dosage, co-anions, pH, and pHZPC was studied. The adsorption kinetic phenomenon followed by pseudo-second-order and intraparticle diffusion models with good correlations. The fitting of the Freundlich adsorption isotherm model confirms multilayer adsorption of heterogeneous surface interaction between the toxic anions. Thermodynamic parameters, including the (ΔGo), (ΔSo) and (ΔHo) indicated that the phosphate and nitrate adsorption was feasible, spontaneity and endothermic in nature. The mechanistic pathway was mainly governed by electrostatic interaction, complexation followed by the ion-exchange mechanism, which was adopted for the removal of phosphate and nitrate anions from aqueous solutions. Furthermore, the applicability of the synthesized membrane towards promising results against the eutrophicated water sample by reducing the concentration of the toxic anions below the acceptable limit.