Sodium alginate nanocomposite based efficient system for the removal of organic and inorganic pollutants from wastewater

An effective and selective catalytic system based on cerium oxide-stannous oxide (CeO2-SnO) wrapped Naalginate hydrogel was developed for the selective reduction of potassium ferricyanide (K-3[Fe(CN)(6)]). Naalginate hydrogel was used as a reacting container for CeO2-SnO nanoparticles. Na-alginate wrapped CeO2- SnO (Alg/CeO2-SnO) was applied as a catalyst and examined toward the reduction of several hazardous pollutants, such as nitrophenols, dyes and K-3[Fe(CN)(6)]. Alg/CeO2-SnO nanocatalyst was mostly selective toward K-3[Fe(CN)(6)] since it was more effective and economical for reduction of K-3[Fe(CN)(6)]. Further different parameters like catalyst amount, reducing agent amount, K-3[Fe(CN)(6)] concentration and recyclability were optimized. The increase in both nanocatalyst amount and NaBH4 concentration resulted in increasing the rate of the catalytic reduction of K-3[Fe(CN)(6)]. Alg/CeO2-SnO nanocatalyst reduced K-3[Fe(CN)(6)] in 4.0 min with a reaction rate constant of 0.9114 min(-1). The nanocatalyst can be easily recovered by pulling the hydrogel from the reaction medium up to four cycles. Alg/CeO2-SnO nanocatalyst was also examined in real samples like irrigation water, sea water, well water, university water, which was effective for K-3[Fe(CN)(6)] reduction by 95.16%- 96.54%. This novel approach provides a new catalyst for efficient removal of K-3[Fe(CN)(6)] from real samples and can be a time and cost alternative tool for environmental safety.

Automated summary

By using a novel catalytic system based on cerium oxide-stannous oxide wrapped in sodium alginate hydrogel, selective reduction of potassium ferricyanide was achieved, demonstrating high efficiency and selectivity for hazardous pollutant reduction.