Nanocomposite of cellulose nanofibers/alumina for effective adsorption of brilliant blue and ethyl orange dyes: Equilibrium, kinetic and mechanism studies

Our study investigated the performance of a nanocomposite prepared from TEMPO- oxidized cellulose nanofibers (CNF) and alumina (Al2O3) on two models of anionic dyes namely Brilliant blue FCF (B.B) and Ethyl orange (E.O) dyes. Here the Al2O3 was prepared using the solution combustion (SC) method. Cellulose nanofibers were prepared from local agriculture waste (bagasse) and mixed with Al2O3 nanoparticles for preparing composite films through the casting technique. Various analytical tools have been used to characterize cellulose nanofibers and cellulose nanofibers/ Al2O3 nanocomposite, including, FTIR, FE- SEM, TEM, and XRD. In the conducted batch experiments aimed at optimizing various operational factors, the study of adsorption isotherms revealed that the data closely align with the freundlich adsorption isotherm model, demonstrating multilayer adsorption. Furthermore, it was found that, the pseudo-second-order model fit the data effectively. Thus, CNF/ Al2O3 nanocomposite was found to be an active adsorbent for handling solutions containing the anionic dyes, which shows its hopeful tolerable of being a highly reusable, cost-effective sustainable and adsorbent for dyeing wastewater treatment.