Engineered surface modification of Terminalia chebula for augmented dye eradication from wastewater

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Green Chemistry
• Materials Science

Background:

• Rising demand for sustainable wastewater treatment methods.
• Need for effective and eco-friendly adsorbents for dye removal.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and characterize a surface-modified phytosorbent from Terminalia chebula (TC) for dye-contaminated wastewater treatment.
• To evaluate the adsorption capacity and mechanism for crystal violet (CV) and methylene blue (MB) removal.

Main Methods:

• Surface modification of TC using sodium hydroxide and citric acid.
• Characterization using FTIR, FESEM-EDX, and BET analysis.
• Adsorption experiments to determine optimal conditions and capacities for CV and MB removal.

Main Results:

• Optimized TC exhibited high adsorption capacities (59.19 mg/g for CV, 59.50 mg/g for MB) despite a low surface area.
• Adsorption followed pseudo-second order kinetics, with CV fitting the Temkin isotherm and MB fitting the Langmuir isotherm.
• The adsorbent demonstrated reusability over three cycles with minimal interference from common ions.

Conclusions:

• Surface-modified Terminalia chebula is a promising, environmentally benign adsorbent for removing CV and MB from wastewater.
• Functional group-mediated chemical interactions play a key role in the high adsorption efficiency.
• The material offers a sustainable alternative for industrial dye wastewater treatment.