Enhanced dye removal using polymeric nanocomposite through incorporation of Ag doped ZnO nanoparticles: Synthesis and characterization.

A facile method was approached to synthesize a new series of highly porous polyethylene glycol (PEG) and Ag-ZnO (AZO) grafted polyaniline (PANI) nanocomposites (PAPE/AZO) for investigation of the adsorption behavior of brilliant green dye (BG). The compositions of Ag (1, 3 and 5%) in AZO were varied to assess the influence of bimetallic oxide incorporation. The nanocomposites were characterized by FTIR, XRD, SEM and TEM analyses. The adsorption performance of the PAPE/AZO was assessed by various parametric changes viz. contact time, pH, temperature, concentration of the dye and adsorbent dosage. The highest adsorption capacity of 94.46 mg g-1 was achieved at the optimum conditions of 0.075 g adsorbent dosage, 70 mg L-1 dye concentration, 1% AZO and pH 2. BET and BJH analyses of the nanocomposite confirmed the higher surface area and pore volume with lower amount of AZO that supported PAPE for enhanced dye removal. The Langmuir isotherm model fits the equilibrium conditions indicating a homogeneous distribution of active sites on the surface of the nanocomposite. Adsorption kinetic model ensued pseudo second order exhibiting chemisorption process. From the results, it is obvious that PAPE/AZO can be used as a potential core substance for treating real-time industrial dye effluents.