Sono-assisted enhanced adsorption of eriochrome Black-T dye onto a novel polymeric nanocomposite: kinetic, isotherm, and response surface methodology optimization

Nowadays, the colored wastewater generated primarily from dyeing and textile industries loaded with synthetic dyes are considered to be one of the key reason for water pollution. However, the remarkable development in material science resulted to fabrication of highly efficient composite materials for effective remediation of such wastewaters. In recent times, polymer matrix-based nanocomposites have turned out to be an outstanding domain of research considering the potential application of polymeric nanocomposite in several important areas including environmental remediation. In this work, the fabrication of a novel iron oxide/polyaniline polymeric nanocomposite (Iron oxide-PANI-PNC) was reported and its sono-assisted adsorptive potential was studied for a toxic anionic dye, Eriochrome Black-T (EBT). This study clears that pure iron oxide has strong pH dependency and it shows maximum dye adsorption only at highly acidic conditions. However, Iron oxide-PANI-PNC could reduce this pH dependency significantly and this polymeric nano-composite shows enhanced dye removal in the wide range of pH from 2.0 to 5.0. Langmuir isotherm model was best fitted to EBT dye adsorption experimental data onto Iron oxide-PANI-PNC with a maximum monolayer adsorption capacity of 285.71 mg/g. Sono-assisted EBT dye adsorption process has achieved an enhanced removal efficiency of 93% as compared to magnetic stirring (65%) and batch stirring (60%). Response surface methodology (RSM) based optimization revealed that maximum EBT dye uptake adsorption of 99.61% at Iron oxide-PANI-PNC dose of 0.8 g/L, sonication time of 27 min, and initial EBT dye concentration of 30 mg/L.