Mesoporous activated TiO₂/based biochar synthesized from fish scales as a proficient adsorbent for deracination of heavy metals from industrial efflux

Abstract

As heavy metals are very noxious for health also known as one of the most poisonous classes of water contaminants. Typically, metal pollutants are non-biodegradable and impervious towards oxidants, heat, and light. Thus, it is a precisely demanding task to eliminate them from water to reduce water pollution. In current studies, the process of adsorption was employed for deracination of Zn and Fe with modified surface of natural material as an adsorbent. ${\mathrm{\text{TiO}}}_2$ NPs were synthesized by using leaf extract of Putranjiva roxburghii and its nanocomposites were made with the fish scale biomass. Prime conditions for proficient removal of zinc were recognized at pH = 4 and for iron at pH = 6 having an initial concentration 100 mg/L, adsorbent dose rate of 0.1 g and contact time 120 minutes. Thermodynamic study revealed that process was spontaneous, and exothermic, resulted in increase in entropy with rise in temperature. Adsorption process has been certified with different isotherm and kinetic models, where the experimental data was brought into being good agreement with pseudo second order ($R^2$ = 0.986) and Freundlich isotherm ($R^2$ = 0.993) as compared with other models. For characterization of synthesized adsorbents scanning electron microscopy, UV–visible spectroscopy and Fourier-transform Infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and energy-dispersive X-ray were used. Average particle size of the adsorbent used ranged from 1 to 5 µm.

Graphical abstract

Keywords:

• Biochar
• industrial effluents
• isotherms
• kinetics
• Putranjiva roxburghii

Author’s contribution

All authors contributed equally to manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

Authors confirm that data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and Supplementary file.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this research work was received from HEC, Islamabad, Pakistan with project name TDF-02-153.