Removal of Organic Pollutants from Wastewater using Silica-Embedded Metal Oxide Nanoparticles
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Date
2019-05-18
Authors
Ghanem, Dua'
Hanoun, Assala
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Abstract
On one hand, water scarcity in the West Bank, Palestine, forces the scientists, environmentalists, engineers, and the decision makers to search for new sources of freshwater. On the other hand, the option of wastewater treatment not only reduces the amount of the water shortage, but it will also protect the environment from the hazardous wastes that are released into the groundwater and soil. Indeed, many conventional techniques were studied and used to remove organic pollutants such as filtration adsorption, coagulation, sedimentation, and electrolysis. Yet, there is always a room for modification onto these processes by integrating them with the nanoparticle technologies.
In this study, we aimed to investigate the effectiveness of in-house prepared silica-based nanosorbcats with active magnesium and nickel sites (hereinafter called SiO2-(Mg0.5Ni0.5)O) nanoparticles towards the removal and the adsorptive of phenol from synthetic wastewater. Adsorption isotherm and kinetics, effect of pH, and thermodynamic studies were studied in batch mode experiments.
The results showed that the adsorption was fast and the adsorption reached equilibrium within less than 30 min. The adsorption equilibrium data fit very well to the Langmuir isotherm (linearized form). The adsorption of phenol was dependent on pH of the solution. Finally, thermodynamics study showed that the adsorption reaction was endothermic with maximum uptake equal 5.46 mg/g.