ZrMOX Particles for Enhanced Removal of Methyl Orange from Wastewater: Preparation, Characterization, and Adsorption Study

The wide application of organic dyes in many industries has brought challenges to the effective treatment of organic wastewater. In this study, a series of ZrMOX (M: Fe, Co, Ni, Cu) particles were prepared by the coprecipitation method to adsorb methyl orange (MO) in aqueous solution. The adsorbents were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and N2 adsorption-desorption. The selected adsorbent with the best adsorption performance was ZrFeOX with a molar ratio of 1 : 1 and calcination temperature of 573 K; the maximum adsorption capacity was 138.95 mg·g-1. The adsorption behavior of MO onto the adsorbent was studied as a function of contact time, initial concentrations, adsorption temperature, and pH conditions. The analysis results showed that pseudo-second-order, Elovich, and Langmuir models were suitable to describe the adsorption behavior of MO on the adsorbent. In addition, regeneration experiments presented that the MO removal rate reached over 96% after repeated recycling for 5 times. The adsorbent developed in this work is not only simple to prepare and low cost but also green and energy-saving, which can make some contributions to environmental governance.