Modeling sunset yellow removal from fruit juice samples by a novel chitosan-nickel ferrite nano sorbent

Analysis of food additives is highly significant in the food industry and directly related to human health. This investigation into the removal efficiency of sunset yellow as an azo dye in fruit juices using Chitosan-nickel ferrite nanoparticles (Cs@NiFe₂O₄ NPs). The nanoparticles were synthesized and characterized using various techniques. The effective parameters for removing sunset yellow were optimized using the response surface methodology (RSM) based on the central composite design (CCD). Under the optimum conditions, the highest removal efficiency (94.90%) was obtained for the initial dye concentration of 26.48 mg L^-1 at a pH of 3.87, a reaction time of 67.62 min, and a nanoparticle dose of 0.038 g L^-1. The pseudo-second-order kinetic model had a better fit for experimental data (R² = 0.98) than the other kinetic models. The equilibrium adsorption process followed the Freundlich isotherm model with a maximum adsorption capacity of 212.766 mg g^-1. The dye removal efficiency achieved for industrial and traditional fruit juice samples (91.75% and 93.24%), respectively, confirmed the method's performance, feasibility, and efficiency. The dye adsorption efficiency showed no significant decrease after five recycling, indicating that the sorbent has suitable stability in practical applications. variousThe synthesized nanoparticles can be suggested as an efficient sorbent to remove the sunset yellow dye from food products.