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Frequent washing of textiles poses a serious hazard to the ecosystem, owing to the discharge of harmful effluents and the release of microfibers. On one side, the harmful effluents from detergents are endangering marine biota, while on the other end, microplastics are observed even in breastfeeding milk. This work proposes the development of sunlight-driven cleaning and antibacterial comfort fabrics by immobilizing functionalized Zn-doped TiO2 nanoparticles. The research was implemented to limit the use of various detergents and chemicals for stain removal. A facile sol–gel method has opted for the fabrication of pristine and Zn-doped TiO2 nanoparticles at three different mole percentages of Zn. The nanoparticles were successfully functionalized and immobilized on cotton fabric using silane coupling agents via pad–dry–cure treatment. As-obtained fabrics were characterized by their surface morphologies, availability of chemical functionalities, and crystallinity. The sunlight-assisted degradation potential of as-functionalized fabrics was evaluated against selected pollutants (eight commercial dyes). The 95–98% degradation of dyes from the functionalized fabric surface was achieved within 3 h of sunlight exposure, estimated by color strength analysis with an equivalent exposition of bactericidal activities. The treated fabrics also preserved their comfort and mechanical properties. The radical trapping experiment was performed to confirm the key radicals responsible for dye degradation, and h+ ions were found to be the most influencing species. The reaction pathway followed the first order kinetic model with rate constant values of 0.0087 min−1 and 0.0131 min−1 for MB and MO dyes, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work reports the formation of a novel adsorbent, prepared by activating bentonite with cinnamic acid, which is highly efficient to remove dyes from wastewater. The adsorption efficiency of the cinnamic acid activated bentonite was compared with unmodified bentonite by removing methyl orange and rhodamine-B from polluted water. The characterization was performed through X-ray diffraction (XRD) Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results indicated that acidic pH and low temperature were more suitable for the selected dyes adsorption. The analysis of the data was done by the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms; the Freundlich isotherm showed more suitability for the equilibrium data. The data were further analyzed by pseudo-first and pseudo-second-order models to study adsorption kinetics. The results showed that methyl orange and rhodamine-B adsorption obeyed pseudo-order kinetics. The results obtained from this research suggested that acid activation of bentonite with cinnamic acid increased the surface area of the clay and hence enhanced its adsorption efficiency. The maximum adsorption efficiency for the removal of methyl orange and rhodamine-B was up to 99.3 mg g−1 and 44.7 mg g−1, respectively, at 25 °C. This research provides an economical modification technique of bentonite, which makes it cost-effective and a good adsorbent for wastewater treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pesticides are one of the main organic pollutants as they are highly toxic and extensively used worldwide. The reclamation of wastewater containing pesticides is of utmost importance. For this purpose, GO-doped metal ferrites (GO-Fe3O4 and GO-CoFe2O4) were prepared and characterized using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic techniques. Photocatalytic potentials of catalysts were investigated against acetamiprid's degradation. A detailed review of the parametric study revealed that efficiency of overall Fenton's process relies on the combined effects of contributing factors, i.e., pH, initial oxidant concentration, catalyst dose, contact time, and acetamiprid load. ~97 and ~90% degradation of the acetamiprid was achieved by GO-CoFe2O4 and GO-Fe3O4, respectively during the first hour under UV radiations at optimized reaction conditions. At optimized conditions (i.e., pH:3, [H2O2]: 14.5 mM (for Fe3O4, GO-Fe3O4, and GO-CoFe2O4) and 21.75 mM (for CoFe2O4), catalysts: 100 mgL−1, time: 60min) the catalysts exhibited excellent performance, with high degradation rate, magnetic power, easy recovery at the end, and efficient reusability (up to 5 cycles without any considerable loss in catalytic activity). A high magnetic character offers its easy separation from aqueous systems using an external magnet. Moreover, the combined effects of experimental variables were assessed simultaneously and justified using response surface methodology (RSM). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]