Degradation of para-nitrophenol by green synthesised iron nanoparticles: Optimization of the process parameters and study of degradation kinetics

Shalu Rawat1* and Jiwan Singh1

1Department of Environmental Science, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow-226025, India

ARTICLE INFOR: Received on 15 May 2022; Revised: 10 June 2022; Accepted: 13 June 2022

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: (S. Rawat) Email-  shalurawat200@gmail.com

 

Journal of Applied Science, Innovation & Technology 1(1), 21-26 (2022)

 

Abstract

Dried waste leaves of Plumeria which is a garden waste was utilized for the preparation of leaf extract and it was used as a green reducing agent for the reduction of Ferric ions (present in FeCl3 solution) into zerovalent iron nanoparticles. It is an easy, cost efficient and eco-friendly method of nanoparticle synthesis. The synthesised iron nanoparticles were characterized by the use of scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and point of zero charge (pHZPC). The synthesised nanoparticles were agglomerated therefore the size appeared larger and they were mainly composed of iron and oxygen. FTIR analysis showed presence of several functional groups over the surface of nanoparticles that refers to its surface complexity. The pHZPC of the nanoparticles was found to be 5.2. The aqueous solution of para-nitrophenol (PNP) was treated in the Fenton-like degradation process using the synthesised iron nanoparticles as catalyst. PNP was efficiently removed from the aqueous solution with maximum percentage removal was 90.52 % with nanoparticle concentration 0.5 g/L, PNP concentration 10 mg/L, pH 3, H2O2 concentration 0.05 M and at 25 ˚C. The degradation of PNP was fitted best with pseudo-first-order kinetics.

Keywords: Iron nanoparticles; green synthesis; degradation; PNP; kinetics.

Scope: Environmental Engineering

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