Biomass-Based Silica/Calcium Carbonate Nanocomposites for the Adsorptive Removal of <i>Escherichia coli</i> from Aqueous Suspensions

The present study deals with the adsorptive removal of <i>Escherichia coli</i> (<i>E. coli</i>) by making use of chitosan-silica/calcium carbonate (CS-SiO<sub>2</sub>/CaCO<sub>3</sub>) nanocomposites (NCs) where it was synthesized using the waste eggsh...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ibrahim Birma Bwatanglang, Samuel T. Magili, Faruq Mohammad, Hamad A. Al-Lohedan, Ahmed A. Soleiman
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2023-03-01
Series:Separations
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2297-8739/10/3/212
Description
Summary:The present study deals with the adsorptive removal of <i>Escherichia coli</i> (<i>E. coli</i>) by making use of chitosan-silica/calcium carbonate (CS-SiO<sub>2</sub>/CaCO<sub>3</sub>) nanocomposites (NCs) where it was synthesized using the waste eggshells and rice husks occurred by natural sources. The bioadsorbent CS-SiO<sub>2</sub>/CaCO<sub>3</sub> NCs were synthesized by incorporating eggshell-CaCO<sub>3</sub> nanoparticles (NPs) and rice husk-SiO<sub>2</sub> NPs in chitosan NPs solution. The adsorbents were characterized using HRTEM, BET, DLS, and TGA. The characterization of NCs revealed the formation of adsorbents in the range of 10–50 nm and some structural changes to the spectra of adsorbents before and after the adsorption of <i>E. coli</i> was revealed by the FTIR analysis. Moreover, the adsorption efficiency of <i>E. coli</i> over the adsorbents after 35 min of incubation was about 80% for CS-SiO<sub>2</sub>/CaCO<sub>3</sub> NCs. Further, the kinetics of adsorption studies were observed to be well-fitted to the Langmuir isotherm model with an adsorption capacity of 3.18 × 10<sup>1</sup> (CFU <i>E. coil</i> per gram of CS-SiO<sub>2</sub>/CaCO<sub>3</sub>). From the analysis, the synthesized bioadsorbent demonstrated the potential for ameliorating the inherent risk of pathogens in water.
ISSN:2297-8739