Removal of anionic dye Congo red from aqueous environment using polyvinyl alcohol/sodium alginate/ZSM-5 zeolite membrane

In this study, a novel PVA/SA/ZSM-5 zeolite membrane with good regeneration capacity was successfully prepared by solvent casting technique. The properties of the membranes were assessed by employing different characterization techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscope (SEM), optical microscopy (OP), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), contact angle and universal testing machine (UTM). XRD, TGA and UTM results revealed that the crystallinity and thermo-mechanical performance of the membrane could be tuned with zeolite content. The successful incorporation of zeolite into the polymer matrix was confirmed by FT-IR, SEM and OP analysis. The adsorption ability of the as-prepared membrane was evaluated with a model anionic dye, Congo red. Adsorption studies show that the removal efficiency of the membrane could be tuned by varying zeolite content, initial concentration of dye, contact time, pH and temperature. Maximum dye adsorption (5.33 mg/g) was observed for 2.5 wt% zeolite loaded membrane, at an initial dye concentration of 10 ppm, pH 3 and temperature 30 °C. The antibacterial efficiency of the membrane against gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus) and gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli) was also reported. The results show that membrane inhibits the growth of both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. The adsorption isotherm was studied using two models: Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm. The results show that the experimental data fitted well with Freundlich isotherm with a high correlation coefficient (R(2) = 0.998). Meanwhile, the kinetic studies demonstrate that pseudo-second-order (R(2) = 0.999) model describe the adsorption of Congo red onto PVA/SA/ZSM-5 zeolite membrane better than pseudo-first-order (R(2) = 0.972) and intra particle diffusion model (R(2) = 0.91). The experimental studies thus suggest that PVA/SA/ZSM-5 zeolite could be a promising candidate for the removal of Congo red from aqueous solution.