Extraction of nanostructured sodium nitrate from industrial effluent and their thermal properties

Abstract

This study describes a process of extraction of high purity sodium nitrate from corrosive chemical industry effluents. Here, we have designed a process to convert highly corrosive effluents of ceramic industries having pH ~13.1 into sodium nitrate nanoparticles. The extraction of sodium nitrate has been carried out via neutralization of industrial effluent by nitric acid. We have also studied the effect of low boiling point co‐solvent during recrystallization of sodium nitrate. TEM studies of sodium nitrate extracted from the filtrate in the absence of co‐solvent show the formation of nanoparticle of ~70 nm. Further, a drastic decrease in particle size to 10 nm has been observed when co‐solvents (methanol, ethanol, and acetone) were used in combination with filtrate during the recrystallization process of sodium nitrate. Thermal properties of sodium nitrate extracted from filtrate have been investigated. Our result indicates that the nanoparticles extracted from filtrate having very high heat storage density (453 J/g) without hampering the melting point and boiling point of the materials. Practitioner points The new chemical process has been developed to treat the industrial effluent Extraction of nanostructured sodium nitrate has been carried from industrial effluent The particle size of sodium nitrate drastically influenced by the used co‐solvent for recrystallization The highest heat storage density is 453 J/g, which was obtained from the recrystallization of the filtrate

Editorial: Surmounting challenges in natural and engineered water systems

“…On the other hand, recourse recovery is an on‐going effort in current wastewater management. In this issue, static magnetic field was demonstrated to promote the bioresource production of photosynthetic bacteria during wastewater treatment (Lu et al., 2020), while a new chemical process was developed to extract nanostructured sodium nitrate from ceramic industry wastewater (Yadav, Sharma, & Jha, 2020). In the groundwater cleanup field, effect of surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate on Fe(II) activation of sodium percarbonate for degradation of subsurface trichloroethylene was comprehensively evaluated (Huang et al., 2020).…”