Synthesis of innovative and sustainable gelatin@graphene oxide-crosslinked-zirconium silicate@gelatin nanobiosorbent for effective biosorption of basic fuchsin dye

Abstract

Abstract Most dye stuffs and coloring materials are mainly categorized as hazardous pollutants in water effluents due to their nature as non-biodegradable, highly toxic and extremely carcinogenic. For this reason, rapid and efficient eradication of waste dyes from wastewaters before discharging into water streams must be accomplished by an acceptable approach as adsorption technique. Therefore, the present study is aimed and devoted to synthesize a novel nanobiosorbent from three different constituents, gelatin (Gel) as a sustainable natural product, graphene oxide (GO) as an example of highly stable carbonaceous material and zirconium silicate (ZrSiO4) as an example of combined metal oxides for the formation of Gel@GO-F-ZrSiO4@Gel by using formaldehyde (F) as a cross-linkage reagent. Several characterization techniques as FT-IR were employed to identify the incorporated surface reactive Functionalities in Gel@GO-F-ZrSiO4@Gel as –OH, =NH, –NH2, –COOH and C=O, etc. The morphology for particle shape and size of Gel@GO-F-ZrSiO4@Gel were confirmed from the SEM and TEM analyses providing 15.75- 32.79 nm. The surface area was determined by the BET and found to correspond to 219.46 m2 g-1. Biosorptive removal of basic fuchsin (BF) pollutant as an example of a widely applicable dye in various activities was monitored and optimized under the influence of pH (2–10), reaction time (1–30 min), initial BF pollutant concentration (5–100 mg L−1), nanobiosorbent dosage (5–60 mg), temperature (30–60 °C) and interfering ions. The maximum biosorptive removal values of BF dye were established as 96.0 and 95.2% using 5 and 10 mg L−1, respectively at the recommended pH 7 condition. The Thermodynamic parameters demonstrated that the BF dye adsorption onto Gel@GO-F-ZrSiO4@Gel was taken place via spontaneous and endothermic reaction. Chemisorption is the predominant adsorption mechanism by forming multilayers upon nonhomogeneous surface in accordance with Freundlich model hypothesis. The applicability of the optimized Gel@GO-F-ZrSiO4@Gel in biosorptive removal of BF pollutant from real water sample was successfully accomplished by the batch technique. Thus, this study clearly shows that Gel@GO-F-ZrSiO4@Gel exhibited significant influences on remediation of industrial effluents containing BF pollutant with superior efficiency.