Studying removal of anionic dye by prepared highly adsorbent surface hydrogel nanocomposite as an applicable for aqueous solution

Abstract

In this study, a Sodium alginate-g-poly (acrylamide-clay)/TiO2 hydrogel nanocomposite [SA-g-p(AM-Bn)/TiO2] was synthesized using the biopolymer sodium alginate (SA), acrylamide (AM), and bentonite clay (Bn) as hybrid materials embedded with titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2NPs) for the removal of toxic Congo Red (CR) dye from an aqueous solution. The [SA-g-p(AM-Bn)/TiO2] nanocomposite has been described on the basis of thermal stability, morphological analysis, estimation of functional group, and crystalline/amorphous character by TGA, EFSEM/EDX, TEM, FT-IR, and XRD analysis, respectively. The effects of operational parameters toward the CR dye adsorption on [SA-g-p(AM-Bn)/TiO2], including contact time, adsorbent dosage, initial concentration, initial pH, and temperature were investigated. The maximum adsorption efficiency was found to be 185.12 mg/g for [SA-g-p(AM-Bn)/TiO2] in 100 mg/L of solution CR at pH 6.0 within 1 h. The equilibrium isotherms, kinetics, and thermodynamics parameters of adsorption were examined, and results showed that the isotherm fitted the Freundlich model and the kinetics adsorption model of CR followed pseudo-first-order, thus indicating physisorption of anionic-CR onto the sorbent due to the development of an electrostatic attraction bond. Thermodynamic parameters for [SA-g-p(AM-Bn)/TiO2] have values (ΔG and ΔH) reflecting the spontaneous and endothermic nature of the adsorption processes. Moreover, [SA-g-p(AM-Bn)/TiO2] presented outstanding excellent reusability and recyclability with a relatively best removal percentage as compared to [SA-g-p(AM-Bn)] and suggested their applicability towards the textile industry and water purification purposes.