Investigation of structural and physical properties of polypyrrole/natural clay nanocomposite as adsorbent for Zn removal

Polypyrrole (PPy) containing 1, 2, 3, and 4wt percent of clay nanoparticles were prepared using melt-mixing techniques and were used to adsorb water Zn ions. X-ray diffraction measurement (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and mechanical research were all used to investigate the effects of additions to clay nanoparticles on PPy's structure and mechanical behavior. The addition of clay nanoparticles has been found to have a major impact on the structure. The XRD tests showed significant modifications of the atomic lattice structure. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) have investigated the thermal behavior of the PPy/clay nanocomposites. The activation energy was calculated using Broido's model. The existence and volume of clay nanoparticles have been found to have an observed effect on the mechanical behavior of the PPy. Experimental results for batch adsorption were represented by both the Langmuir model and Freundlich isotherm adsorption models providing information on the mechanism of adsorption and adsorbent surface. The data collected have been well fitted with model Langmuir. The results obtained suggest that PPy/clay nanocomposites have more effectively eliminated heavy metal water contaminants and can be used for more industrial applications as a novel adsorbent.