Ultrasonic treatment of wastewater contaminated with various dyes using tin oxide hydroxide nanoparticles loaded on activated carbon: Synthesis, performance, mechanism and statistical optimization

Abstract

Present research describe applicability of tin oxide hydroxide nanoparticles loaded on activated carbon (Sn6O4 (OH)4‐NPs‐AC) which recognized via by Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE‐SEM) and X‐ray diffraction (XRD) for the rapid simultaneous removal of Methyl orange (MB) and methylene blue (MB) in mixture in the presence of ultrasonic wave. The central composite design (CCD) pattern as branch of response surface methodology (RSM) give useful information about influence of five most important operating variables is separate and combination nature namely pH (4.0–8.0), initial MO (8–24 mg L−1) and MB concentration (4–12 mg l−1), sonication time (2–6 min) and adsorbent mass (0.01–0.03 g) on the ultrasound under study dyes assisted adsorption. After surveying the experiment data and finding regression analysis correspond to experimental data, mathematical model and equation was constructed and derived which applied for optimizing ultrasound assisted adsorption and revel serious dependency of response to variables like adsorbent mass and sonication time s. F values of 114.5 and 165.5, coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.9978 and 0.9985, adjusted‐R2 of 0.9891 and 0.9925, adequate precision (AP) of 39.11 and 40.23, coefficient of variation (CV) of 0.653 and 1.988% for MB and MO respectively, implied the satisfactory adjustment of the quadratic model. Based on CCD, the optimum conditions was set as pH of 6.0; 0.02 g adsorbent; 20 and 12 mg l−1 of MO and MB concentration and 2 min sonication time. The predicted removal of MO and MB in binary system were 98.19 and 98.02% which was good agreement with their experimental R% MO and MB value of 98.00% for both at optimum condition. The equilibrium data has good agreement with Langmuir with maximum monolayer adsorption capacity of 30.90 and 25.70 mg g−1 for MO and MB respectively. Investigation of time dependency of adsorption data revel more applicability pseudo‐second order in cooperation with intraparticle diffusion description of the mechanism and adsorption rate.