Synthesis, characterization, and evaluation of ZrSiO4/Fe2O3adsorbent for methylene blue removal in aqueous solutions

Abstract

Methylene blue dyes are widely used in textile, batik, plastic, paper, and many other industries. The remain of methylene blue dyes in the textile waste is hazardous for health and the environment. Therefore, it takes effort to deal with it. One of the efforts is the process of adsorption using adsorbents. In this study, the adsorbent ZrSiO4/Fe2O3 was synthesized using the coprecipitation method using NaOH as precipitant. Either ZrSiO4 or Fe2O3 was synthesized from Indonesia mineral local zircon sand and jarosites, respectively. The composites of ZrSiO4/Fe2O3 were prepared in %mole variation, which is 75:25; 50:50; and 25:75. All obtained composites were then characterized using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD). The XRD analysis showed that the crystal structure formed was tetragonal for ZrSiO4 and hexagonal for Fe2O3 (also known as α-Fe2O3). Evaluation toward isotherm adsorption and kinetic adsorption showed that the adsorption of MB using ZrSiO4/Fe2O3 follows the Langmuir isotherm model and pseudo-second-order model, respectively.