Synthesis and Application of Novel Adsorbents for Detoxification of Contaminated Water

Abstract

With increased industrialization, use of dyes has increased manifolds. This leads to newlinecontinuous deterioration of waterbodies. Though many conventional methods are newlineestablished to mitigate such problems, majority of them suffers few drawbacks such as newlinecost-ineffective, tedious, low selectivity and lack of field application. Keeping those facts newlinein mind, this thesis reports the use of various chemi-sorbents and phyto-sorbents for newlineenhanced removal of dyes. Chemisorbent such as binary and ternary metal oxides have newlinebeen synthesized in bulk quantity using co-precipitation technique, and used for the newlineremoval of cationic dyes. Sucrose assisted, self-sustained combustion method was newlineexercised to synthesize magnetic metal oxide nanoparticles. Cobalt and nickel oxide newlinenanoparticles were tested for removal of dyes and raw pyrolusite and its starch fabricated newlinecomposite has been prepared using copolymerization techniques and employed for dye newlineremoval. All the synthesized compounds have been thoroughly characterized using FTIR, newlineSEM-EDS, HRTEM, VSM, BET surface area and pH ZPC . Surface texture was revealed newlinefrom SEM/TEM images. Porous nature was identified by BET surface area. Batch and newlinefixed bed column experiments were optimized with respect to various physico-chemical newlineparameters such as pH, temperature, concentration, dose etc. Pathway of adsorption was newlinetested with various kinetic models and adsorption isotherms. Thermodynamic data newlinesuggests a spontaneous and feasible process. Regeneration was tested with acidic, newlinealkaline and alcoholic eluent and the materials were tested for reuse. Mechanism of newlineadsorption was proposed as a combination of electrostatic and other weaker interactions. newlineRaw coconut fiber was activated by dilute alkali solution and tested for cationic dye newlineremoval. A detailed cost-benefit analysis was carried out to demonstrate suitability of the newlineadsorbents for field use. A comparative study has been made with the existing materials.