Application of novel nanobiocomposites for removal of nickel(II) from aqueous environments: Equilibrium, kinetics, thermodynamics and ex-situ studies

Abstract

The current study presents a novel approach for the removal of Ni(II) from aqueous environments using plant gum-based (PG) and clay-based (CL) nanobiocomposite (NBC) composed of ZnO nanoparticles and chitosan. Parameters like pH, contact time, temperature, initial metal concentration and adsorbent dosage were optimized. Under optimized conditions, maximum removal of Ni(II) was noted as 90.1% and 95.5% in the case of PG-NBC and CL-NBC, respectively. Equilibrium studies suggested a homogeneous mode of adsorption. Good linearity was observed for the pseudo-first order kinetic model, suggesting a physical mode of adsorption. Thermodynamic studies showed an endothermic and spontaneous nature of adsorption. The mechanism was further elucidated using SEM, EDX, AFM and FT-IR analysis. Ex-situ studies showed a maximum Ni(II) removal of 87.34% from electroplating wastewater using CL-NBC in column mode. Regeneration studies suggested that CL-NBC could be consistently reused up to 4 cycles.