Development of new adsorbents via microwave treatment magnetic PET synthesis from waste PET and investigation of TC removal

Abstract

In this study; new, economic and environment friendly adsorbents were synthesized using waste polyethylene terephthalate based adsorbent, derived from waste PET bottles, WPET, nano-scale zero valent iron modified adsorbent nZVI-WPET and microwave energy pre-treatment applied adsorbent MW/WPET-nZVI for TC removal. The synthesized composite was characterized using various techniques such as EDX, FT-IR XRD and SEM. Maximum adsorption values were obtained for all adsorbents at pH 5.0, with adsorbent amount of 10.0 g/l, at 20 C’ and with initial TC concentration of 50 mg/l as a result of which the highest adsorption yield was obtained for WPET, WPET- nZVI and 2 min MW/WPET- nZVI as; 92.42%, 93.10%, 93.38% respectively. Maximum adsorption capacities, values were determined as 67.11 mg/g, 80 mg/g and 105.26 for WPET, WPET-nZVI and 2 min MW/ WPET-nZVI. Adsorption isotherms parameters were modeled for new adsorbents and the best fit achieved with Freundlich isotherms for TC removal process