Green synthesis of zero-valent iron nanoparticles and loading effect on activated carbon for furfural adsorption

The adsorption techniques are extensively used in dyes, metronidazole, aniline, wastewater treatment methods to remove certain pollutants. Furfural is organic in nature, considered a pollutant having a toxic effect on humans and their environment and especially aquatic species. Due to distinct characteristics of the adsorption technique, this technique can be utilized to adsorb furfural efficiently. As an environmentally friendly technique, the pomegranate peel was used to synthesized activated carbon and nanostructure of zerovalent iron impregnated on the synthesized activated carbon. The physicochemical and crystallinity characterization was done using Fourier transmission infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), and Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The nanoparticles are porous in structure having 821.74 m²/g specified surface area. The maximum amount of the adsorbent pores in the range of 3.08 nm shows the microporous structure and enhancement in adsorption capacity. The effects of increment in concentration of adsorbent, pH, reaction contact time and adsorbent dose, isothermal and kinetic behaviour were investigated. At the UV wavelength of 227 nm furfural adsorption was detected. The separation of the furfural from the aqueous solution was calculated at the 1 h reaction time at the composite dosage of 4 g/L, 250 mg/L adsorbent concentration and pH kept at 7. The 81.87% is the maximum removal attained by the nanocomposite in comparison to the activated carbon is 62.06%. Furfural adsorption was also analyzed by using the equations of isothermal and kinetics models. The adsorption process analysis depends on the Freundlich isotherm and Intra-particle diffusion than the other models. The maximum adsorbent of the composite was determined by the Langmuir model which is 222.22 mg/g. The furfural removal enhances as the adsorbent dose enhances. The developed zerovalent iron nanoparticles incorporated on activated carbon (AC/nZVI) from pomegranate peel extract are feasible as an efficient and inexpensive adsorbent to eliminate furfural from a liquid solution.