Journal of Nanostructures

Journal of Nanostructures

Ultrasonic Assisted Adsorption of Basic Dyes from Binary Component Systems onto ZnO Nanoparticles Loaded on Activated Carbon Derived from Almond Shell: Optimization by Central Composite Design

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
A. Asghari 1
M. Hemati 1
M. Ghaedi 2
M. Rajabi 1
B. Mirtamizdoust 3
1 Department of Chemistry, Semnan University, Semnan 35195-363, Iran
2 Department of Chemistry, Yasouj University, Yasouj 75918-74831, Iran
3 Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Qom, Qom 37185-359, Iran
10.7508/jns.2014.01.003
Abstract
In this study, ZnO nanoparticles were loaded on activated carbon prepared from almond shell (ZnO-NP-AC). Then, this novel material applied as an efficient adsorbent for the ultrasonic assisted simultaneous removal of Basic Blue 41(BB41) and Basic Red 46 (BR46) in binary solution.  The efficiency of proposed activated carbon was enhanced by acid treatment and subsequent modification by physical mixing with ZnO- NP. The identification by different techniques such as FT-IR, SEM and XRD confirm its porous structure and appearance of various functional groups on AC. In batch process mode, the effect of variables such as adsorbent dosage, initial dyes concentration and sonication time on the removal of dyes were studied by central composite design (CCD) combined with response surface methodology (RSM) and desirability function (DF). The optimum values of input variables were found to be 0.03 g of adsorbent, 19 min of sonication time, 14 mg/L of BR46, 9 mg/L of BB41in pH 6 to high removal percentage (85% and 91% for BR 46, BB41, respectively). Among of the conventional isotherm and Kinetic models, p-factor and second-order models showed reasonable fit to the adsorption equilibrium data, respectively.
Keywords
Ultrasonic assisted adsorption
Carbon derived from almond
SHELL
Acid treatment
ZnO nanoparticles