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Insights into the competitive adsorption of pollutants on a mesoporous alumina-silica nano-sorbent synthesized from coal fly ash and a waste aluminium foil.

ABSTRACT: A highly efficient and low-cost alumina-silica nano-sorbent was fabricated and characterized to understand the key factors responsible for its superiority over the existing adsorbents in treating the industry-discharged wastewater for the removal of dyes and heavy metals. As compared to the properties of raw fly ash, the following fundamental improvements were observed for the alumina-silica nano-sorbent: (a) transformation of throttled mesopores into slit-type pores, (b) increment in the surface area by 65-fold, (c) change in the morphology from spherical particles to a flake-type structure with sharp edges, (d) reduction in the average crystal size from 61.143 to 27.176 nm, and (e) increase in the pore volume from 0.005 to 0.50 cm³ g^-1. These desired properties of the nano-sorbent were obtained by blending a waste aluminium foil with fly ash. This process increased the ratio of alumina to silica from 0.59 : 1 to an optimum ratio of 1.9 : 1, beyond which the particles agglomerated and the pore volume reduced. Eventually, the precipitated hydroxides were calcined at 700 °C that favoured the formation of γ-alumina. Moreover, this heat treatment changed its crystallinity and morphology of γ-alumina, which abruptly enhanced its activity towards the pollutants. The obtained product (nano-sorbent) was tested for the removal of lead and malachite green from a model wastewater solution over a wide range of initial pollutant concentrations and adsorbent dosages. After observing almost complete removal capacity and reusability for the pollutants, we propose this synthesized adsorbent as a universal material for treating industrial wastewater.

SUBMITTER: Chatterjee A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9052400 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Insights into the competitive adsorption of pollutants on a mesoporous alumina-silica nano-sorbent synthesized from coal fly ash and a waste aluminium foil.

Chatterjee Aditi A Shamim Shahnawaz S Jana Amiya Kumar AK Basu Jayanta Kumar JK

RSC advances 20200420 26

A highly efficient and low-cost alumina-silica nano-sorbent was fabricated and characterized to understand the key factors responsible for its superiority over the existing adsorbents in treating the industry-discharged wastewater for the removal of dyes and heavy metals. As compared to the properties of raw fly ash, the following fundamental improvements were observed for the alumina-silica nano-sorbent: (a) transformation of throttled mesopores into slit-type pores, (b) increment in the surfac ...[more]

PMID: 35495426

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Project description:Geopolymers are inorganic polymers formed from the alkaline activation of amorphous alumino-silicate materials resulting in a three-dimensional polymeric network. As a class of materials, it is seen to have the potential of replacing ordinary Portland cement (OPC), which for more than a hundred years has been the binder of choice for structural and building applications. Geopolymers have emerged as a sustainable option vis-à-vis OPC for three reasons: (1) their technical properties are comparable if not better; (2) they can be produced from industrial wastes; and (3) within reasonable constraints, their production requires less energy and emits significantly less CO₂. In the Philippines, the use of coal ash, as the alumina- and silica- rich geopolymer precursor, is being considered as one of the options for sustainable management of coal ash generation from coal-fired power plants. However, most geopolymer mixes (and the prevalent blended OPC) use only coal fly ash. The coal bottom ash, having very few applications, remains relegated to dumpsites. Rice hull ash, from biomass-fired plants, is another silica-rich geopolymer precursor material from another significantly produced waste in the country with only minimal utilization. In this study, geopolymer samples were formed from the mixture of coal ash, using both coal fly ash (CFA) and coal bottom ash (CBA), and rice hull ash (RHA). The raw materials used for the geopolymerization process were characterized using X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) for elemental and X-ray diffraction (XRD) for mineralogical composition. The raw materials' thermal stability and loss on ignition (LOI) were determined using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and reactivity via dissolution tests and inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP) analysis. The mechanical, thermal and microstructural properties of the geopolymers formed were analyzed using compression tests, Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Using a Scheffé-based mixture design, targeting applications with low thermal conductivity, light weight and moderate strength and allowing for a maximum of five percent by mass of rice hull ash in consideration of the waste utilization of all three components, it has been determined that an 85-10-5 by weight ratio of CFA-CBA-RHA activated with 80-20 by mass ratio of 12 M NaOH and sodium silicate (55% H₂O, modulus = 3) produced geopolymers with a compressive strength of 18.5 MPa, a volumetric weight of 1660 kg/m³ and a thermal conductivity of 0.457 W/m-°C at 28-day curing when pre-cured at 80 °C for 24 h. For this study, the estimates of embodied energy and CO₂ were all below 1.7 MJ/kg and 0.12 kg CO₂/kg, respectively.

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Insights into the competitive adsorption of pollutants on a mesoporous alumina-silica nano-sorbent synthesized from coal fly ash and a waste aluminium foil.

Publications

Insights into the competitive adsorption of pollutants on a mesoporous alumina-silica nano-sorbent synthesized from coal fly ash and a waste aluminium foil.

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