Novel Claycunbic to eliminate micropollutants and Vibrio fischeri from water

Abstract

Montmorillonite clay (K10) was used as a precursor for the synthesis of a catalytic adsorbent, Claycunbic (Bi/Cu-pillared K10), which was characterized by SEM (EDS), TEM, XRD, BET, TGA and XPS analysis. The catalytic adsorption of cationic dye methylene blue (MB), anionic dye methyl orange (MO) and halogenated aromatic dichlorophenol (DCP) was assessed through multivariate experimental design. The adsorption kinetics was interpreted using pseudo-first order kinetics and an intra-particle diffusion model. It was found that the highest MB, MO and DCP removal efficiency was achieved with 0.5 mL and 1 mL hydrogen peroxide and 1 mg L⁻¹ catalyst doses, respectively. Decrease in 95, 40 and 75% of TOC was observed for MB, MO and DCP, respectively. Bacterial (Vibrio fischeri) bioluminescence inhibition assay showed that inhibition of growth increased from 20 to 100%, with an increase in Claycunbic concentration from 10 to 2000 mg L⁻¹ indicating applicability not only for the removal of organic but bacterial contamination as well. Claycunbic exhibited excellent stability up to 5 consecutive runs in terms of degradation of MB (100–88%) and regained nearly 100% catalytic activity after intermediate calcination at 400 °C for 2 h.