A Potential Approach for Converting Rubber Waste into a Low-Cost Polymeric Adsorbent for Removing Methylene Blue from Aqueous Solutions

Muhammad Aliyu; Abdul Halim Abdullah; Mohamed Ibrahim bin Mohamed Tahir

doi:10.22146/ijc.69674

A Potential Approach for Converting Rubber Waste into a Low-Cost Polymeric Adsorbent for Removing Methylene Blue from Aqueous Solutions

https://doi.org/10.22146/ijc.69674

Muhammad Aliyu⁽¹⁾, Abdul Halim Abdullah^(2*), Mohamed Ibrahim bin Mohamed Tahir⁽³⁾

(1) Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia; Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Natural and Applied Science, Sule Lamido University, Kafin Hausa, Jigawa State, Nigeria
(2) Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia; Institute of advanced Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan Malaysia
(3) Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract

Exploiting waste materials to make cost-effective adsorbents and waste management methods are gaining more attention. In the current study, rubber wastes derived from dipping tank coagulum (DTC) in the glove manufacturing industry were converted into a novel polymeric-adsorbent via a simple sulfonation reaction with concentrated sulphuric acid and was used for the adsorption of methylene blue (MB) dye from aqueous solutions commonly found in contaminated waters. FT-IR, EDX, FESEM, and BET techniques were used to characterize the rubber waste before and after modification. The highest MB removal efficiency of 99.03% was achieved in the condition of initial concentration, adsorbent dosage, pH, contact time, and temperature were 15 mg/L, 30 mg, pH 7, 300 min, and 25 °C, respectively. The adsorption of MB was analyzed using experimental data fitted in a monolayer isotherms model with a maximum adsorption capacity of 119 mg/g. The kinetic model was revealed to agree with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Furthermore, SRW retained 90.45% of the removal percentage after four cycles of the repeated adsorption-desorption process. Conclusively, these findings suggest that rubber waste could be a suitable low-cost adsorbent to remove organic dyes from polluted water.

Keywords

methylene blue; adsorption; rubber waste; polymeric materials; environmental remediation

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References

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.22146/ijc.69674