Application of immobilized ZnO nanoparticles for the photocatalytic regeneration of ultrasound pretreated-granular activated carbon

Soheil Aber; Rana Tajdid Khajeh; Alireza Khataee

doi:10.1016/j.ultsonch.2019.104685

Application of immobilized ZnO nanoparticles for the photocatalytic regeneration of ultrasound pretreated-granular activated carbon

Ultrason Sonochem. 2019 Nov:58:104685. doi: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2019.104685. Epub 2019 Jul 11.

Authors

Soheil Aber¹, Rana Tajdid Khajeh², Alireza Khataee³

Affiliations

¹ Research Laboratory of Environmental Protection Technology (RLEPT), Faculty of Chemistry, Department of Applied Chemistry, University of Tabriz, 51666-16471 Tabriz, Iran. Electronic address: s_aber@tabrizu.ac.ir.
² Research Laboratory of Environmental Protection Technology (RLEPT), Faculty of Chemistry, Department of Applied Chemistry, University of Tabriz, 51666-16471 Tabriz, Iran.
³ Research Laboratory of Advanced Water and Wastewater Treatment Processes, Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Tabriz, 51666-16471 Tabriz, Iran; Department of Environmental Engineering, Gebze Technical University, 41400 Gebze, Turkey.

PMID: 31450360
DOI: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2019.104685

Abstract

In this study, the photocatalytic regeneration by ZnO was employed for the regeneration of the granular activated carbon (GAC) which was saturated with the reactive red 43. The ultrasound was applied as a pretreatment step due to the cleanup of the adsorbent surface and providing a higher surface area and adsorption capacity. According to the nitrogen gas adsorption-desorption results, the ultrasound pretreated-GAC had the highest surface area and the total pore volume. The SEM and XRD analyses confirmed the immobilization of ZnO nanoparticles on the GAC. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to model and optimize the preparation of the granular activated carbon/ZnO nanocomposite. The sonication time, pH, GAC/ZnO ratio, and calcination temperature were used as four effective parameters on nanocomposite preparation. Optimum amounts of pH, GAC/ZnO ratio, calcination temperature, and sonication time were found to be equal to 4, 5, 300 °C, 210 min, respectively; in these conditions, 83.98% of the capacity of the exhausted granular activated carbon was regenerated. ANOVA results, high R², R²-adj values, and also normal and random distribution of residuals showed that application of RSM for the modeling and optimizing the preparation step of GAC/ZnO nanocomposite was successful.

Keywords: Adsorption; Advanced oxidation process; Photocatalyst; Response surface methodology; Sonication.