(117aj) Comparison on Efficiency of Iron and Aluminum Nanoparticles for Methylene Blue Removal from Aqueous Solutions

This study demonstrates a comparative study of methylene blue (MB) dye removal from aqueous solutions using zero-valent iron (nZVI) and zero-valent aluminum (nZVAl) nanoparticles. The results indicated that at pH 6, nZVI dosage 10 g/L, initial MB concentration 10 mg/L, temperature 30 °C, and stirring rate 150 rpm, the equilibrium time was 30 min achieving a removal efficiency of approximately 100% for nZVI. While for nZVAl, the results indicated that at an initial MB concentration of 10 mg/L, pH 10, nZVAl dosage 1.0 g/L, stirring rate 200 rpm, and temperature 30°C, the removal efficiency of approximately 99.0% was achieved within an equilibrium time of 90 min. Moreover, the adsorption data of MB fitted well to the Freundlich isotherm model (R2: 0.9358) and pseudo-second-order kinetic model (R²: 0.9976) for adsorption by nZVI. Also, the isotherm adsorption data were best fitted by the Freundlich isotherm model (R2: 0.9569), while the kinetic data were well described by the pseudo-second-order model (R²: 0.9999) for adsorption by nZVAl. From the aforementioned results, it is clear that both nZVI and nZVAl showed very high efficiency in removing methylene blue from aqueous solutions with a slight difference in favor of nZVI.