Investigation of Equilibrium, Isotherm, and Mechanism for the Efficient Removal of 3-Nitroaniline Dye from Wastewater Using Mesoporous Material MCM-48

In this work, the MCM-48 mesoporous material was prepared and characterized to apply it as an active adsorbent for the adsorption of 3- Nitroaniline (3-Nitrobenzenamine) from wastewater. The MCM-48 characterizations were specified by implementing various techniques such as; scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Energy dispersive X-Ray analysis (EDAX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area, pore size distribution (PSD), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR). The batch adsorption results showed that the MCM-48 was very active for the 3-Nitroaniline adsorption from wastewater. The adsorption equilibrium results were analyzed by applying isotherms like Langmuir and Freundlich. The maximum experimental uptake of 3-Nitroaniline according to type I Langmuir adsorption was found to be 89 mg g^-1 approximately. The Langmuir model is superior to the Freundlich model for the adsorption of 3-Nitroaniline onto the mesoporous material MCM-48. The results demonstrated that 3-Nitroaniline regression coefficients are so high (0.99), the pseudo 2nd order hypothesis for the adsorption mechanism process appears to be well-supported. The findings of adsorption isotherms and kinetics studies indicate the adsorption mechanism is a chemisorption and physical adsorption process. In a thermodynamic analysis, a spontaneous and exothermic adsorption has been observed.