Investigation on the Efficacy of Activated Carbon Modified with Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles to Remove Methylene Blue Dye from Synthetic Wastewater: Kinetic and Isotherm Study

Effluents containing synthetic dyes are hazardous to ecological systems and public health. Adsorption process is one of the treatment methods that has been attracted much attention in recent years. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to survey the feasibility of using zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles stabilized on activated carbon to the methylene blue dye adsorption from synthetic wastewater. The study was conducted in the batch system. The stabilization of the nano particles on the adsorbent, in order to increase the sorption properties, was carried out by thermal procedure. The effect of various parameters including the nano particles loading, pH, contact time, dye concentration and adsorbent dose was studied on the adsorption. The reaction kinetics and adsorption isotherm was also studied. The sorption capacity of the dye by the modified activated carbon (with dye concentration= 50 mg/l, adsorbent content=0.3 g/l and contact time= 120 min) at the various loadings of nano particles (0.01, 0.1 and 0.5 g per gram of the adsorbent) was 16.6, 16.45 and 14.52 mg/g, respectively. The sorption capacity of the modified activated carbon (16.6 mg/g) was higher that of the raw sorbent (6.47 mg/g). The study showed that activated carbon modified with ZnO nanoparticles can be used as an effective method to remove Methylene blue dye in the aqueous solutions.