Sustainable and Green Synthesis of Iron Nanoparticles Supported on Natural Clays via Palm Waste Extract for Catalytic Oxidation of Crocein Orange G Mono Azoic Dye

Abstract

In this study, the removal of Crocein Orange G dye (COG) from aqueous solution was investigated using an innovative green catalyst to overcome problems with chemical techniques. Clay bentonite El Hamma (HB)-supported nanoscale zero-valent iron (NZVI) was used as a heterogeneous Fenton-like catalyst for the oxidation of harmful COG. Palm waste extract was herein used as a reducing and capping agent to synthesize NZVI, and HB clay was employed, which was obtained from the El Hamma bentonite deposit in the Gabes province of Tunisia. HB and HB-NZVI were characterized by various techniques such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller (BET), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), dynamic light scattering (DLS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and zeta potential. Under optimal conditions, total degradation of COG was attained within 180 min. Kinetic studies showed that the dye degradation rate followed well the pseudo-second-order model. The apparent activation energy was 33.11 kJ/mol, which is typical of a physically controlled reaction. The degradation pathways and mineralization study revealed that the adsorption-Fenton-like reaction was the principal mechanism that demonstrated 100% degradation efficiency of COG even after three successive runs. Obtained results suggest that HB-NZVI is an affective heterogeneous catalyst for the degradation of COG by H 2 O 2 and may constitute a sustainable green catalyst for azoic dye removal from industrial wastewaters.

Green low-cost synthesis of zero-valent iron nanoparticles from Palm Petiole Extract for Cr(VI) removal from water

“…The P-NZVI nanoparticles were synthesized following a procedure used in our previous study (Tesnim et al 2023 ) with some modifications. The synthesis steps of P-NZVI are depicted in Fig.…”

“…Interestingly, the valorization of agro-wastes into NZVI has been reported by different studies using various types of starting agro-substrates, providing an alternative to conventional routes (Desalegn et al 2019 ). Several agro-wastes have been utilized, such as Green Tea ((Eddy et al 2022 ), Black Tea (Souza et al 2020 ), waste Palm Petiole (Tesnim et al 2023 ), Eucalyptus leaf (Wang et al 2014 ), and Ricinus Communis (Abdelfatah et al 2021 ). Numerous studies highlight the role of compounds such as polyphenols, proteins, alkaloids, phenolic acids, sugars, and terpenoids as biological reducing and stabilizing agents in the synthesis of NZVI (Ingle 2021 ; Poudel et al 2022 ).…”