Facile synthesis, physico-chemical studies of Ocimum sanctum magnetic nanocomposite and its adsorptive application against Methylene blue

This research work investigates the synthesis of Ocimum sanctum-Fe(3)O(4 )hybrid magnetic nanocomposite, OSIO, by using economical and facile co-precipitation technique. The synthesized nanocomposite has been characterized, and used for adsorptive removal of Methylene blue dye from its solution. The ther-modynamics, kinetics of the sorption process have been investigated and the adsorption mechanism for the MB sorption onto the surface of OSIO has been proposed. The systematic characterization including, XRD, FTIR, SEM-EDX, TEM, VSM, BET, Zeta potential and XPS of the nanocomposite were carried out to study the structural and morphological properties. Futhermore, the sorption parameters, like initial MB dye concentration, OSIO dosage, temperature, contact time, and pH of solution had been optimised to acquire maximum efficiency. The OSIO showed high allurement for the MB dye with Q(max) = 23.80 mg/g at 303 K which further escalated to 31.25 mg/g on increasing the temperature up to 323 K, indicating the process of adsorption to be an endothermic one. Furthermore, the negative value of DG suggested the spontaneous nature of the adsorption process. Isotherm studies of the MB sorption onto OSIO showed best fitting of the data to Freundlich isotherm, while reaction kinetics followed pseudo-second order within the studied temperature range. (C) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.