Nanotechnological Approaches for Removal of Some Contaminants from Water

Abstract

In this thesis, different approaches have been used to remove various types of wastewater contaminants using adsorption technique under different adsorption parameters. First approach depends on preparation of modified mesoporous zeolite-A /reduced graphene oxide nanocomposite (MZ-A/RGO) in the presence of 3-aminopropyl- trimethoxysilane (APTMS) as a mesopore generating and cross linkage agent which enhance the attaching of the zeolite-A into the surface of the RGO that could be used for the removal of cationic heavy metals ions contaminants such as Cadmium (Cd2+), Lead (Pb2+), groundwater common cationic ions contaminants such as Iron (Fe3+) and Manganese (Mn2+) and cationic organic dyes such as Crystal Violet (CV) and Methylene Blue (MB). The physico-chemical properties of the nanosorbent were investigated using different analytical tools such as, XRD, ATR-FTIR, SEM, TEM and Zeta potential. The adsorption process was studied in a batch scale experiments with various adsorption conditions that were assumed to affect the capacity of prepared MZ-A/RGO to remediate the cationic heavy metal ions (Cd2+ and Lead Pb2+), mineral metal ions (Fe3+ and Mn2+), cationic dyes (MB and CV). Second approach is based on the fabrication of superdydrophobic octadecylamine (ODA) surface modified mesoporous zeolite-A/reduced graphene oxide (MZ-A/RGO /ODA) nanocomposite. The heads of cationic surfactant (ODA) enhance an electrostatic interaction force on the negatively charged adsorbent surface and formation of hydrophobic layer on its surface that act as adsorptive layer for the oily organic contaminants such as emulsified oil. Also, the conformation of the binding between ODA and MZ-