Facile eco-friendly treatment of a dye wastewater mixture by in situ hybridization with growing calcium carbonate

Inorganic/organic hybridization is often employed to synthesize functional materials but seldom considered in industrial wastewater treatment. Dye conjugate hybridization was proposed by immobilizing the anionic (e. g. congo red)-cationic (e. g. methylene blue) dye complex with growing calcium carbonate. The 3D-morphology and structure of the conjugate hybrid were characterized and the mechanism of formation elucidated. The shell-core structural hybrid was formed and then stacked into cubes. Applied to treatment of concentrated organic wastewaters, the simple single-step hybridization performed adsorption, flocculation and ionic complexation and exhibited a high level of removal of organic substances. This work provides a convenient, cost-effective and environment-friendly wastewater treatment by "using waste to treat waste''.