Effective adsorption of methylene blue dye from water solution using renewable natural hydrogel bionanocomposite...

Today, hydrogels opened new windows to the high-tech due to their amazing features. Thus, we applied hydrogel nanocomposite (HNC) made of tragacanth gum (a kind of polysaccharide) and CaCO₃ nanoparticles to remove methylene blue dye (MBD) from the water solution. We used nonlinear and linear isotherms and kinetics as well as thermodynamics to uncover the adsorption mechanism. The results showed that the hydrogel could remove 80% of MBD. Besides, the linear form of the pseudo-second-order kinetic model fits well with the results, showing chemical interactions. We found that this process follows both Sips and Redlich-Peterson models by applying nonlinear and linear isotherm models. The maximum adsorption capacities from nonlinear and linear Sips were 1401 and 2145 mg/g, respectively. Based on the thermodynamic equations, the adsorption of MBD onto HNC was physiochemical and exothermic. According to the phenomenological calculations, diffusion from the bulk (or film diffusion, D_f = 1.2 × 10^-8 cm²/s) is the primary mechanism.