The use of nanoclay reinforced polymeric composite for environmental pollution removal

In this thesis, nanoclay reinforced composite material was synthesized using natural alginate polymer. Characterization of nanoclay reinforced composite material was performed using FT-IR, XRD and SEM-EDS. The synthesized nanoclay-reinforced nanocomposite material was used in batch study using a central composite design approach (CCD) combined with response surface methodology (RSM) for adsorption and desorption of Cu2+, Cd2+ ions, Eriochrome Black T (EBT) and Methylene Blue (MB) as environmental impurities. For the adsorption of Cu2+, Cd2+ ions as well as EBT and MB on nanoclay reinforced composite material, optimum conditions of variables such as pH, temperature and amount of adsorbent affecting the adsorption process were determined for studied each pollutant. The results of the analysis of variance were found to have high determination coefficients in the use of the synthesized composite material for the removal of the studied environmental pollutants. In addition, the validation of the methods was carried out with various tests such as Fisher's test and t-test. The equilibrium behavior of the adsorption process was tested by applying Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin isotherm models. It was observed that the Langmuir isotherm model provided the closest fit to the experimental data for Cu2+ and Cd2+ ions, while the Temkin model for EBT and the Freundlich Langmuir isotherm model for MB provided the closest fit to the experimental data. According to the model with the best fit, the maximum adsorption capacities of Cu2+ and Cd2+ ions as well as EST and MM dyestuffs were calculated as 19.2 mg g-1,14.1 mg g-1, 7.8 mg g-1 and 3.38 mg g-1, respectively. Also, different kinetic models were applied to evaluate the kinetic data, including pseudo-first-order equation, pseudo-second-order equation as well as intraparticle diffusion equation. It was observed that there is a significant agreement between the kinetic data and the pseudo-second-order equation in the removal of these impurities. Thermodynamic studies showed that the nature of the adsorption process is spontaneous and endothermic. Desorption studies and reusability of the synthesized composite material were performed using 0.5 M HCl. The synthesized composite material has been successfully applied to the removal of environmental pollutants from synthetic solutions.