Copper Oxide Nano Biochar from Spent Coffee Grounds for Phosphate Removal and its Application as an Antibacterially Active Entity

Abstract

From the viewpoint of both eutrophication and sustainable use of phosphate, the removal and recovery of phosphate from wastewater are important. Adsorption is seen as a viable alternative for effective phosphate removal, even at low concentrations. It is very simple to operate and cheaper. Among the various adsorbents tested, biomass-derived nanomaterials, such as nanobiochar, have shown promising efficiency. However, the use of pristine biochar is often less effective and difficult to recycle. In the present study, copper oxide-modified nanobiochar from spent coffee grounds is presented as an effective phosphate adsorbent. The adsorbent was prepared by the acid digestion of spent coffee grounds, followed by the co-precipitation of copper metal. The developed adsorbent was characterized by BET, FTIR, and XRD. Batch mode adsorption studies were conducted to assess the adsorption efficiency of the developed adsorbent and to investigate the effect of pH, initial concentration, contact time, and adsorbent dose. It was observed that acidic conditions favored the adsorption of phosphate, with maximum adsorption efficiency (93%) at pH 3. The maximum equilibrium phosphate adsorption capacity in this study was 50.2 mg/g at 25 oC, pH 3, a phosphate concentration of 20 mg/L, and an adsorbent dose of 35 mg/mL. The batch experimental data fit the Freundlich isotherm with regression (R2 = 0.991), which signifies that the surface of the adsorbent is heterogeneous. Adsorption kinetic data were best fitted with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model (R2 = 0.996), indicating that the adsorption process was dominated by chemisorption. The copper oxide nanoparticles and Cu/NBC showed relatively higher zone inhibition in gram-positive bacteria than in gram-negative bacteria at similar concentrations. This might be due to the higher activity of the nanoparticle extract on gram-positive bacteria, as most nanoparticle extracts were more active in gram-positive bacteria. This difference may be explained by the difference in the structure of the cell wall in gram-positive bacteria, which consists of a single layer, and in gram-negative bacteria, which has a multi-layered structure and is quite complex. In the majority of test bacteria, Cu/NBC showed better activity. The higher activity of this nanomaterial might be associated with the number of bioactive metabolites and their synergetic activities.