Synthesis, characterization and application of cellulose/polyaniline nanocomposite for the treatment of simulated textile effluent

The aim of the study was to analyze the potential application of cellulose/polyaniline (Ce/Pn) nanocomposite for the treatment of synthetic reactive dye bath effluent. The Ce/Pn composite was synthesized by chemical oxidative polymerization of aniline. A central composite experimental design, a most popular design of response surface methodology, was applied to optimize the level of variables, namely, cellulose and polyaniline, to get the best response on dye removal. Biological transmission electron microscopy studies reveal that the cellulose particles were uniformly distributed on the nanocomposite. The results of the batch experiment studies indicate that Ce/Pn nanocomposite removed 95.9, 91.9, 92.7, and 95.7 % of RBBR, RO, RV, and RBK, respectively, and it decolorized 82 % of dye bath effluent. However, the presence of the salts reduced the adsorption rate of the dyes. The Langmuir model and pseudo first-order rate expression exhibited satisfactory fit to adsorption data of single component.