Mesoporous silica-based sensor for colorimetric determination of Basic Yellow 28 dye in aqueous solutions

Abstract

The textile industry is one of the largest water-consuming industries in the world. The wastewater generated by the textile industry is a major source of pollution, containing mostly dyes, but also detergents, and heavy metals. Since dyes can have a negative impact on the environment, human and aquatic life, it is really important to find proper solutions for removal of these pollutants from wastewater. In addition, special attention is given to the discovery of new and fast "in situ" methods for identification and quantification of pollutants from wastewater. In this paper, SBA-15, mesoporous silica material, was used as sorbent for removal of Basic Yellow 28 from aqueous solutions. In addition, colored SBA-15 after sorption process was subjected to image analysis, to evaluate if it was possible to quantify sorbed dye on sorbent based on intensity of SBA-15 coloration. The obtained results revealed that SBA-15 could remove 99% of dye within 5 min. The highest efficiency of dye removal was at pH8, using 200 mg of sorbent. According to the Langmuir isotherm model, the theoretical maximum sorption capacity was 909 mg/g. Image-Pro software confirmed that it would be possible to quantify sorbed dye onto SBA-15 with accuracy of 0.98. Overall, SBA-15 demonstrated to be efficient sorbent in removal of Basic Yellow 28 from water, but also to be potential carrier as a sensor for detection of colored pollutants in water.