Biosynthesis of Tithonia diversifolia leaf mediated Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles loaded with flamboyant pods (Delonix regia) for the treatment of Methylene Blue Wastewater

The large capacity of wastewater production due to rapid growth of industries has resulted in limited water resources. The need to protect and conserved water resources have enforced researchers worldwide to focus on the development of an effective, economical and environmentally friendly novel materials. In this study, green synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) using T. diversifolia leaf extract by hydrothermal method was loaded on the surface of flamboyant pods (Delonix regia) activated carbon (FPAC). The developed ZnONPs loaded on the surface flamboyant pods activated carbon (ZnONPs-FPAC) was used successfully to remove of methylene blue (MB) from aqueous solution. The developed FPAC, ZnONPs and ZnONPs-FPAC were characterized UV–Vis spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDX), Transmission electron microscope (TEM) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) techniques. The antibacterial activity of the synthesized FPAC, ZnONPs and ZnONPs-FPAC were screened and the results revealed that ZnONPs has an excellent antibacterial activity when compared. Batch adsorption studies were conducted to investigate the influence of process parameters such as initial concentration, contact time, pH, adsorbent dosage and temperature on MB uptake. The high BET surface area of 794.48 m2/g and mesoporous ZnONPS-FPAC developed gave good adsorption capacity of 186 mg/g. Equilibrium adsorption data of MB were modelled using Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin and Dubinin–Radushkevich (D–R) isotherm model. The adsorption of MB onto ZnONPs-FPAC was best described by Freundlich model indicating surface heterogeneity, and pseudo-second-order kinetics according to %Δqe (normalized standard deviation), SSE (sum of square error), and R2 (coefficient of determination) values. The results of the thermodynamic suggest that the adsorption process of MB onto ZnONPs-FPAC is endotherm, favourable, spontaneous, and physical. In nature. The reusability of ZnONPs-FPAC was examined upto five cycles with no significant loss in removal efficiency. The mean free energy (E), and Enthalpy (ΔH) values calculated, suggested that the adsorption mechanism of MB on ZnONPs-FPAC is dominated by physical adsorption.