Synthesis and utilization of green metal oxide polymeric nanocomposite for removal of Red-XGRL dye from aqueous solution: batch and column study

The chief source of water pollution is industrial wastewater containing dyes. In current study, the optimum conditions for removal of Red-XGRL dye by green metal oxide polymeric nanocomposites were determined via batch and column study. The synthesized materials were characterized via SEM, FTIR and thermal analysis. The optimum pH for attaining maximum adsorption capacity of WD, WD-ZnO-PTh, WD-ZnO-PAN and WD-ZnO-PPY was found to be 8 (12.9 mg/g), 10 (30.2 mg/g), 11 (35.8 mg/g) and 11 (40 mg/g), respectively, and optimum dose was found to be 0.05 g/50 mL. The highest adsorption potential for all composite materials was attained within 90 min and maximum adsorption potential for WD (40.8 mg/g), WD-ZnO-PTh (60.7 mg/g), WD-ZnO-PAN (70.4 mg/g) and WD-ZnO-PPY (86.3 mg/g) was obtained using 200 mg/L dye concentration at 30 °C. The adsorption data showed better fitness to pseudo-second-order kinetics and Langmuir sorption isotherm giving significant R 2 values of 0.95–0.99 and 0.97–0.99, respectively. Thermodynamic study showed exothermic nature of sorption. During column study, optimum adsorbent bed height, dye flow rate and inlet initial dye concentration to attain highest adsorption (35 mgg −1 ) were determined to be 3 cm, 1.8 mL min −1 and 70 mg/L, respectively. Hence, the present study aimed to remove Red-XGRL dye proved that these green metal oxide polymeric nanocomposites could efficiently be synthesized and utilized for efficient removal of Red-XGRL dye from aqueous solution both in batch and in column mode. Graphical abstract