Aluminum Montmorillonite/Polyaniline Hybrid Composite-Based Organogels for the Expurgation of Carcinogenic Chlorophenols and Congo Red Dye from Defiled Water Sources

Chlorophenol and Congo Red dye being highly toxic are well known for their carcinogenic activity. This work focuses on preparing an organogel for the removal of both chlorophenol and Congo Red. PAni molecules were grafted in situ between the layers of montmorillonite (MMT) to form a PAni/MMT composite, which was further modified to form a gel structure. The composite was thoroughly characterized by high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HR-XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) analysis, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The gel was further analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and by studying the rheological properties. The resulting gel exhibited an impressive solvent uptake, with a maximum of 2084% (20 times) for chlorophenol, while the dye adsorption capacity was 349.72 mg/g with 99.44% removal efficiency. The adsorption proceeded with the pseudo-second-order model followed by the Langmuir monolayer adsorption model and Weber's intraparticle diffusion model. The sorbent was found to be selective among cationic dyes while retaining 83% of dye even in the fifth cycle. The hybrid sorbent shows great promise for sustainable purposes, and the results of this study are certainly encouraging.