article · Chemosphere
Researchers have developed a sustainable nanocomposite by combining natural clay with cobalt oxide nanoparticles using a simple co-precipitation synthesis method. This material, designated NC@Co3O4, is designed to extract hazardous heavy metal pollutants, specifically lead and cadmium ions, from contaminated water. Laboratory tests and structural characterisations confirmed that the composite possesses high environmental stability, biocompatibility, and tolerance to salinity. The adsorbent achieved removal efficiencies of up to 86.89 percent for lead and 82.06 percent for cadmium, maintaining effectiveness across variations in solution pH, dosage, contact time, and initial metal concentration. The maximum recorded adsorption capacities were 55.24 milligrams per gram for lead and 52.91 milligrams per gram for cadmium. Furthermore, the material retained its utility across five consecutive reuse cycles, while molecular simulations confirmed the spontaneous nature of the adsorption process.
Lead and cadmium contamination in water poses severe environmental and human health risks. Developing biocompatible, stable adsorbents that can perform reliably under varying salinity and acidity levels is essential for cleaning polluted water. Demonstrating that natural clay combined with cobalt oxide achieves high removal rates and can be reused repeatedly offers a practical approach towards treating toxic industrial effluents and protecting vulnerable ecosystems.
The nanocomposite is targeted at wastewater treatment applications, particularly the removal of heavy metal pollutants. Potential users include industrial operators and municipal water treatment facilities managing lead and cadmium waste. The research appears to be early-stage laboratory work, having established straightforward synthesis, five-cycle reusability, and performance under varying chemical conditions, though tests in operational industrial environments are not described.
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In this study, co-precipitation synthesis of natural clay (NC) with Co 3 O 4 nanoparticles (NPs) is carried out to elaborate the super NC@Co 3 O 4 nanocomposites with admirable salinity confrontation, environmental stability and reusability, to eliminate heavy metal pollution such as toxic Pb(II) and Cd(II) ions. The advantages of using the NC@Co 3 O 4 adsorbent are easy synthesis and biocompatibility. In addition, NC@Co 3 O 4 can keep an excellent adsorption capacity by taking into account various environmental parameters such as the pH solution, NC@Co 3 O 4 dose, adsorption process time and the initial heavy metals concentration. Furthermore, FTIR, XRD, TGA, SEM-EDS, TEM and AFM analyses were performed to confirm NC@Co 3 O 4 nanocomposites synthesis and characterisation. The adsorption efficiencies of Pb(II) and Cd(II) ions by NC@Co 3 O 4 nanocomposites were demonstrated to be up to 86.89% and 82.06% respectively. Regarding the adsorption from water onto the NC@Co 3 O 4 nanocomposites, kinetics data were well fitted with PSO kinetic model, whereas a good agreement was found between the equilibrium adsorption and theoretical Langmuir isotherm model leading to maximum adsorption capacities of 55.24 and 52.91 mg/g, for Pb(II) and Cd(II) respectively. Monte Carlo (MC) simulations confirmed the spontaneous of this adsorption based on the negative values of E ads . The MC simulations were performed to highlight the interactions occurring between heavy metal ions and the surface of NC@Co 3 O 4 nanocomposites, these were well correlated with the experimental results. Overall the study showed that NC@Co 3 O 4 nanoadsorbents have strongly versatile applications and are well designed for pollutant removal from wastewater due to their unique adsorptive properties. • Synthesis of sustainable nanocomposites of natural clay (NC) with Co3O4 nanoparticles (NPs). • Removal of Pb(II) and Cd (II) ions using NC@Co 3 O 4 nanocomposites. • NC@Co 3 O 4 has Qm of 55.24 mg/g for Pb(II) and 52.91 mg/g for Cd (II) ions. • MC simulations were used to clarify adsorption properties of nanocomposites. • The NC@Co 3 O 4 nanocomposites are reusable for 5 consecutive cycles.
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DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.137922
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