Preparation of activated porous glass adsorbent through thermochemical reforming of ampoules and eggshells for remediation of direct blue dye pollution

• Published in: Asia-Pacific journal of chemical engineering 2021-03, Vol.16 (2), p.n/a
• Main Authors: Hussain, Zahid, Zada, Amir, Hussain, Khadim, Naz, Muhammad Y., AbdEl‐Salam, Nasser M., Ibrahim, Khalid A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: adsorption of dyes; char‐enhanced silicate; eggshell as a flux; glass valorization; porous adsorbent; textile wastewater
• ISSN: 1932-2135; 1932-2143
• DOI: 10.1002/apj.2610

The recycling of chemical containing glass bottles is generally not recommended due to high health risk. In this study, used glass ampoules were devitrified into a porous material by coprocessing with eggshells, salt, and soda at different temperatures. In this thermochemical reaction, eggshells decomposed into calcium, porogenic gases, and char. The calcium worked as a flux in the reaction while char and gases promoted the porosity of the devitrified glass. The thermochemically processed glass was treated with deionized water to clear the water‐soluble fractions and to improve the surface porosity. The final product was characterized for its chemical composition, functional groups, surface morphology, and pore sizes. The porous product revealed the pore volume of .010 cc/g, surface area of 32.0399 m2/g and pore radius of 1.522 nm. The well‐known Freundlich and Longmuir models were used to investigate the adsorption of blue dye onto the prepared porous glass adsorbent. The adsorbed amount of dye was found influenced by the contact time, adsorbent dose, pH of solution, and dye concentration. The porous glass adsorbed about 2.788 mg/g of dye at pH 2, which decreased to 1.938 mg/g at pH 7. The dye adsorption data followed the best fit for Freundlich model as compared to the Longmuir model.