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ABSTRACT
Nitrate (NO3−) is one of the most common contaminants of water bodies with harmful effects to aquatic life and human beings. There is a need for development of sorbents for effective removal of NO3− form aqueous streams. The aim of present study was to develop a Polyaniline modified halloysite nanoclay (PAni-HC) composite sorbent for the uptake of NO3− from aqueous medium. Aniline coated on halloysite clay was oxidised in acidic medium at 4ºC to synthesise PAni-HC composite in one pot reaction. Successful incorporation of polyaniline (PAni) in the clay matrix was confirmed by different surface characterisation techniques. The as synthesised PAni-HC composite sorbent was tested for NO3− sorption in a batch mode in the initial concentration range of 5–500 mg L−1. The analysis of NO3− was performed using ion chromatography in the suppressed conductivity mode. The experimental data were assessed using different kinetic and equilibrium models for understanding the sorption behaviour of the PAni-HC composite. Sorption followed pseudo second order kinetics and intraparticle diffusion model. The maximum Langmuir sorption capacity of PAni-HC composite for NO3− was found to be 27.9 mg g−1. The composite sorbent when treated with groundwater samples exhibited quantitative removal (> 90%) of NO3−thus demonstrating the applicability of the sorbent in real situations.
Acknowledgments
The authors sincerely thank Dr. A.K. Tyagi, Associate Director, Chemistry Group, BARC for his encouragement and support. Authors would also like to thank Dr. Juby Ajish for FTIR analysis and Ms. Sudeshna Saha for SEM analysis.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Supplementary material
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.