Swelling and kinetic investigations of basic blue-3 sorption by polyacrylamide/Gum Arabic hybrid hydrogel in aqueous medium

Abstract

Abstract Removal of noxious dyes from waste water is highly desirable for the safety of humans, aquatic life and natural environment. The issue was addressed in the present work by one pot fabrication of polyacrylamide/Gum Arabic (pAAm/GA) composite hydrogel which was applied as sorbent for basic blue-3 (BB3) eradication. The synthesis of the material was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transformed Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA). Besides, the same techniques also evidenced BB3 uptake by the hydrogel. In distilled water, the swelling capacities of the hydrogel was investigated at pH 7 and the nature of water diffusion into the hydrogel was probed from the resultant data. The composite hydrogel reached equilibrium point in 24 h after which no appreciable water absorption occurred. The adsorption of BB3 by the hybrid material was comprehensively investigated which involved the effect of contact time, temperature and pH on the sorption capacity of the hybrid sorbent. The obtained data fitted well into pseudo second order kinetic model and the adsorption took place in three consecutive kinetic phases. Moreover, sorption thermodynamics revealed non spontaneous and endothermic nature of BB3 sorption accompanied with increase in degree of order.