Equilibrium and Computational Chemical Modelling Studies for the Removal of Methyl Orange and Methyl Red Dyes from Water Using Modified Silica Resin

Abstract

This study describes the removal of methyl orange (MO) and methyl red (MR) dyes from water samples using morpholinomethylcalix[4]arene immobilised silica (MIS) resin. The silica surface has been modified by p-morpholinomethylcalix[4]arene moiety and was characterised by FT-IR spectroscopy and SEM techniques. The adsorption capacity of MIS-resin was checked through batch adsorption experiments under the optimised conditions of pH, MIS-resin dose, time, and temperature. Results show that adsorption of MO and MR dyes are highly affected by the change in pH; thus, the higher adsorption percentages were achieved at pH 5.3 and 6.6 respectively. The adsorbent dosage has been optimised and it was noticed that the maximum adsorption was achieved by using 40 mg.L⁻¹ of MIS-resin dose. The adsorption rate of dyes was investigated by applying the pseudo-first and second-order kinetic models and it has been observed that the experimental data shows a better correlation coefficient with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The feasibility of adsorption was analysed by thermodynamic parameters such as ∆H°, ∆G°, and ∆S° values indicate that the adsorption of dyes is exothermic and spontaneous. The equilibrium data have been validated using Langmuir and Freundlich models and the Langmuir model has a good correlation coefficient (R² 0.99). The MIS-resin was applied onto industrial effluents and it has been observed that the prepared resin is a very efficient adsorbent for the treatment of dyes contaminated wastewater. The adsorption of MO and MR dyes onto MIS-resin was well defined by computational chemical modelling at the B3LYP/LANL2DZ/6-311++G (d,p) level using G09W software.