For initiating a
prosperous cost-friendly waste management of small-scale
industries, cow buffing dust (CBD), one of the abundantly available
semisynthetic collagenic solid wastes, has been used as a nonsulfur
cross-linker of natural rubber (NR) for fabricating an NRCBD–biocomposite
superadsorbent. The as-prepared reusable biocomposite bearing variegated
collagenic and noncollagenic N-donors, along with the O-donors, has
been reported for ligand-selective preferential superadsorption from
waste water. Thus, a CBD and NR-based scalable biocomposite bearing
optimum cross-linking, excellent physicochemical properties, and reusability
has been developed via systematic optimization of the torque and reaction
time for cost-friendly adsorptive exclusion of dyes, such as 2,8-dimethyl-3,7-diamino-phenazine
(i.e., safranine, SF) and (7-amino-8-phenoxazin-3-ylidene)-diethylazanium
dichlorozinc dichloride (i.e., brilliant cresyl blue), BCB, and Hg(II).
The CBD-aided curing of NR has been achieved through the formation
of a cross-linked chromane-ring originated via reaction between the
methylol-phenol ring of phenol-formaldehyde resin and isoprene unit
of NR. The partial disappearance of unsaturation in cured-NRCBD, relative
variation of crystallinity, surface properties, elevated thermal stabilities,
and ligand-selective superadsorption have been studied by advanced
microstructural analyses of unadsorbed and/or adsorbed NRCBD using
Fourier transform infrared (FTIR),
13
C nuclear magnetic
resonance, ultraviolet–visible, and O 1s-/N 1s-/C 1s-/Hg 4f
7/2,5/2
-X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies, thermogravimetric
analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray diffraction, field
emission scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive spectroscopy,
and pH
PZC
. Response surface methodology-based optimization
has been employed to attain the optimum potential of NRCBD, considering
the interactive effects between pH
i
, temperature, and concentration
of the dye. H-aggregate and time-dependent hypochromic effect has
been observed during individual adsorption of dyes. Moreover, the
prevalence of chemisorption via ionic interaction between NRCBD and
SF, BCB, and Hg(II) has been realized by FTIR, fitting of kinetics
data to the pseudosecond-order model, and measurement of activation
energies. The Brunauer–Emmett–Teller and Langmuir isotherms
fit the best to BCB and SF/Hg(II), respectively. Thermodynamically
spontaneous chemisorption have shown the maximum adsorption capacities
of 303.61, 46.14, and 166.46 mg g
–1
for SF, BCB,
and Hg(II), respectively, at low initial concentration of Hg(II)/dyes
= 40 ppm, 303 K, and adsorbent dose = 0.01 g.