Insights into the competitive adsorption of pollutants on a mesoporous alumina–silica nano-sorbent synthesized from coal fly ash and a waste aluminium foil

A highly efficient and low-cost alumina–silica nano-sorbent was fabricated and characterized to understand the key factors responsible for its superiority over the existing adsorbents in treating the industry-discharged wastewater for the removal of dyes and heavy metals. As compared to the properties of raw fly ash, the following fundamental improvements were observed for the alumina–silica nano-sorbent: (a) transformation of throttled mesopores into slit-type pores, (b) increment in the surface area by 65-fold, (c) change in the morphology from spherical particles to a flake-type structure with sharp edges, (d) reduction in the average crystal size from 61.143 to 27.176 nm, and (e) increase in the pore volume from 0.005 to 0.50 cm(3) g(−1). These desired properties of the nano-sorbent were obtained by blending a waste aluminium foil with fly ash. This process increased the ratio of alumina to silica from 0.59 : 1 to an optimum ratio of 1.9 : 1, beyond which the particles agglomerated and the pore volume reduced. Eventually, the precipitated hydroxides were calcined at 700 °C that favoured the formation of γ-alumina. Moreover, this heat treatment changed its crystallinity and morphology of γ-alumina, which abruptly enhanced its activity towards the pollutants. The obtained product (nano-sorbent) was tested for the removal of lead and malachite green from a model wastewater solution over a wide range of initial pollutant concentrations and adsorbent dosages. After observing almost complete removal capacity and reusability for the pollutants, we propose this synthesized adsorbent as a universal material for treating industrial wastewater.