Advanced Investigation of the Elimination of Methylene Blue From Wastewater Using Activated Carbon–Copper Oxide Nanowires: New Perspectives With Statistical Physical Modeling

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this study, the actual route of methylene blue (MB) dye adsorption by using fabricated polyfunctional activated carbon–copper oxide nanowires (AC@CuO‐NWs) from bulky wastewater bodies has been investigated. To better understand the exact pathway of the adsorption process, a prominent statistical physics formalism or grand canonical formalism has been proposed and used to evaluate the real‐time experimental data by offering three parameter equations that could be significantly characterized by the specific adsorption reaction. Notably, there is a strong correlation between the real‐time adsorption experimental data and the outcomes derived from the equations of the newly proposed statistical physics formalism model or Hill model. The observed parameters could offer an exact adhesion mechanism by indicating three important factors: (i) the actual number of adsorbed MB molecules at each active receptor site belonging to the structure of AC@CuO‐NW adsorbents, (ii) the density of the occupied receptor sites per unit mass of the considered AC@CuO‐NW adsorbents , and (iii) the energetic parameter—half saturation concentration with the binding energy—due to thermal agitation. The calculated values indicate that the selective separation of the particular MB dye from wastewater bodies was followed by monolayer physisorption due to the involvement of both hydrogen bonds and van der Waals interactions between the adsorbents and adsorbates. The Polanyi equation reveals that the adsorption energy distribution was confined to between and . Additionally, the calculated specific surface values (approximately , , and ) could demonstrate that the fabricated AC@CuO‐NW adsorbents possess a highly microporous surface. The pore size distribution values were found to be between 5 and 15 nm as per the Kelvin equation, offering beneficial insight addressing the stereochemistry of the active binding sites.