Production of eco-friendly adsorbent of kaolin clay and cellulose extracted from peanut shells for removal of methylene blue and congo red removal dyes

• Published in: International Journal of Biological Macromolecules
• Main Author: Reghioua A.; Atia D.; Hamidi A.; Jawad A.H.; Abdulhameed A.S.; Mbuvi H.M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V. 2024
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85185702320&doi=10.1016%2fj.ijbiomac.2024.130304&partnerID=40&md5=61784a391ccd1041a8d0e40bcb76c306

This present work targets the production of an eco-friendly adsorbent (hereinafter KA/CEL) from kaolin clay functionalized with cellulose extract obtained from peanut shells. The adsorbents were used for decolorization of two different types of organic dyes (cationic: methylene blue, MB; anionic: Congo red, CR) from an aqueous environment. Several analytical methods, including Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (surface properties), Fourier Transforms infrared (functionality), scanning electron microscope, Energy dispersive X-Ray (morphology), and pHpzc test (surface charge), were used to attain the physicochemical characteristics of KA/CEL. The Box-Behnken Design (BBD) was applied to determine the crucial factors affecting adsorption performance. These included cellulose loading at 25 %, an adsorbent dose of 0.06 g, solution pH set at 10 for MB and 7 for CR, a temperature of 45 °C, and contact times of 12.5 min for MB and 20 min for CR dye. The adsorption data exhibited better agreement with the pseudo-second-order kinetic and Freundlich models. The Langmuir model estimated the monolayer capacity to be 291.5 mg/g for MB and 130.7 mg/g for CR at a temperature of 45 °C. This study's pivotal finding underscores the promising potential of KA/CEL as an effective adsorbent for treating wastewater contaminated with organic dyes. © 2024 Elsevier B.V.