The Use of Pre-heated Black Cumin Seeds (Nigella sativa) for Sorption Basic Dyes from Aqueous Solutions

The discharge of industrial effluents containing dyes such as methylene blue (MB) and safranine T (ST) into water resources has caused serious problems for humans and organisms which live in water. On the other hand, the seeds of nigella sativa have been known to be effective and economical materials that present an excellent performance of dye removal from various types of wastewater. In this study, a different method from the existing literature was used, where the black cumin seeds (HBCS) were heated for a twenty-four hour period at 85 degrees C and ground to 300 mu m particle size to obtain new adsorbents for (MB) and (ST) dye adsorption from aqueous solutions. Four operating variables, which show a strong impact on adsorption, were tested by conducting a batch mode adsorption experiment and these were: the dye solution's initial pH (pH), the contact time (t), the initial concentration of the dye (C-o), and the mass of the adsorbent (m(a)). The sorption capacity of the adsorbent (q) and the dye removal efficiency (% Rem) were utilized as indicators of the impacts of selected operating variables on adsorption processes. It was found that the adsorption of MB and ST dyes increased when the initial concentration of the solution is higher. The adsorption of MB and ST dyes onto HBCS with initial concentration of 50 mg/L was 3.39 mg/g and 4.36 mg/g, respectively. The equilibrium values for the MB and ST dyes corresponded with the Freundlich isotherm model onto HBCS highlighting the multi-layer adsorption process occurring which describes the interactions between the modified HBCS and the two dyes. The findings demonstrate that the optimum adsorption processes of the MB and ST dyes accrued in the 120 minutes and obtained at pH 10.7 and 11 for MB and ST, respectively. These conditions provide a negative charge for the surface of HBCS, causing its attraction to the positive charge of the MB and ST dyes. Kinetic studies elucidated that the MB and ST dyes adsorption onto HBCS most corresponded with pseudo-second order. The findings of this study could be implemented functionally in the industrial wastewater treatment sector.