Carbonized black pepper spike and its alginate composite for effective batch and column adsorption of uranium from water

The United Nations Sustainable Development Group (UNSDG) mandates clean water as one of its goals for 2030. In this context, we have adopted a sustainable pathway using black pepper spike, an agricultural waste material to synthesise a novel, eco-friendly adsorbent (Black Pepper spike Carbon, PPC) through microwave induced carbonization (MWI) for remediation of uranium from ground water. This material was also suitably modified into its calcium alginate composite beads (PPA) and used for fixed-bed column adsorption study. The physicochemical properties of the adsorbents were analyzed using various analytical and spectroscopic methods. A maximum adsorption capacity of 333.33 mg g(-1) was obtained for PPC from Langmuir model. The column variables were evaluated and an adsorption capacity of 191.5 mg g(-1)was realized with PPA using the Thomas model. With good selectivity and regeneration capacity, the adsorbents synthesized in this work provide a sustainable solution towards effective remediation of uranium from environmental water samples as an application study.