The goal of this work was to utilize rice husk silica (RHS) and porous materials synthesized with RHS, including mesoporous material (MCM-41) and microporous materials (zeolite NaY and NaBEA), for adsorption of herbicide paraquat. The adsorption occurred although cation exchange and the capacity decreased in the following order: NaY > NaBEA > MCM-41 > RHS, consistent with the amount of Al. The adsorption on all adsorbents fitted well with the Langmuir model and the maximum adsorption capacity of 185.2 mg/g-adsorbent was obtained on NaY. In addition, blue dye in commercial grade paraquat did not interfere with paraquat adsorption. Although MCM-41 was the most efficient adsorbent for the blue dye, RHS was favorable in terms of production cost. A mixture of NaY and RHS is recommended for simultaneous adsorption of paraquat and blue dye.
The aim of this work is to determine paraquat adsorption capacity of zeolite NaX and Al-MCM-41. All adsorbents were synthesized by hydrothermal method using rice husk silica. For Al-MCM-41, aluminum (Al) was added to the synthesis gel of MCM-41 with Al content of 10, 15, 20 and 25 wt%. The faujasite framework type of NaX and mesoporous characteristic of Al-MCM-41 were confirmed by X-ray diffraction. Surface area of all adsorbents determined by N2 adsorption-desorption analysis was higher than 650 m2/g. Al content and geometry were determined by X-ray fluorescence and 27Al nuclear magnetic resonance, respectively. Morphology of Al-MCM-41 were studied by transmission electron microscopy; macropores and defects were observed. The paraquat adsorption experiments were conducted using a concentration range of 80-720 mg/L for NaX and 80-560 mg/L for Al-MCM-41. The paraquat adsorption isotherms from all adsorbents fit well with the Langmuir model. The adsorption capacity of NaX was 120 mg/g-adsorbent. Regarding Al-MCM-41, the 10% Al-MCM-41 exhibited the lowest capacity of 52 mg/g-adsorbent while the other samples had adsorption capacity of 66 mg/g-adsorbent.
The nature of paraquat adsorption is compared between zeolite NaX and NaY which have the same faujasite structure but different Si/Al ratio, namely 1.2 and 2.2, respectively. The adsorption was proposed to occur via ion exchange and expected to increase with Al content. However, NaX had a lower paraquat adsorption capacity than NaY. The bare and paraquat-containing zeolites (PQX and PQY) were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, N 2 adsorption-desorption analysis, magic-angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance (MAS) NMR, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The presence of adsorbed paraquat was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Paraquat adsorbed in supercages of the zeolites resulting in a decrease of surface area and displacement of sodium cations. Results from 23 Na MAS NMR and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy indicated that interaction of sodium ions in the cavity of NaX was stronger than that in NaY, making it less exchangeable with paraquat.
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