Nuclear chemistry

Starch

Wastewater

Catalysis

Adsorption

Engineering

Polymer chemistry

Materials science

Methylene blue

Nanocomposite

Montmorillonite

Chemical engineering

Langmuir adsorption model

Waste management

Cationic polymerization

Sorption

Organic chemistry

Composite material

Chemistry

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

Photocatalysis

Materials Chemistry and Physics

In this research, montmorillonite clay (MC) was magnetically modified by starch and cobalt-ferrite (CoFe2O4) (MC/starch/CoFe2O4) and then used to eliminate methyl violet (MV) and methylene blue (MB) dyes from water. The materials swere characterized by FTIR, XRD, SEM/EDX/Map, VSM, BET and TEM analyses. Also, central composite design (CCD) method was employed to optimize the effective factors on the uptake process. The utmost sorption efficiency using the MC/starch/CoFe2O4 nanocomposite were obtained 98.67% (MB) and 99.45% (MV), respectively, indicating significant sorption efficiencies. Also, the utmost sorption capacity of MV using MC, MC/CoFe2O4 and MC/starch/CoFe2O4 nanocomposite were 29.76, 34.79 and 43.95 mg/g, respectively, and the utmost sorption capacity of MB using these sorbents were 31.96, 36.91 and 47.51 mg/g, respectively. Among the studied models, the sorption data were more consistent with the pseudo-1st order kinetic (R2 > 0.99). Furthermore, the uptake of dyes using the nanocomposite was physical, favorable, and exothermic. Also, MC/starch/CoFe2O4 nanocomposite was able to clean textile wastewater (efficiency: 70%).

Montmorillonite clay/starch/CoFe2O4 nanocomposite as a superior functional material for uptake of cationic dye molecules from water and wastewater