Physicochemical Characterization of Clay and Study of Cationic Methylene Blue Dye Adsorption

Zineb El Kerdoudi; Jaouad Bensalah; Nouhaila Ferraa; Abdelali El Mekkaoui; Avni Berisha; Zaki Safi; Hanae Ouaddari; Farid Khallouki; Musaab Dauelbait; Hiba-Allah Nafidi; Abdel-Rhman Z Gaafar; Mohammed Bourhia; Amar Habsaoui; Nouredine El Mejdoub

doi:10.1021/acsomega.3c06019

Physicochemical Characterization of Clay and Study of Cationic Methylene Blue Dye Adsorption

ACS Omega. 2023 Oct 16;8(43):40848-40863. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.3c06019. eCollection 2023 Oct 31.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, Catalysis, and Environment(LOCCE), Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Ibn Tofaïl University, B.P. 133, 14000 Kenitra, Morocco.
² Laboratory of Advanced Materials and Process Engineering (LAMPE), Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Ibn Tofaïl University, B.P. 133, 14000 Kenitra, Morocco.
³ Chemistry platform, UATRS, National Center for Scientific and Technical Research (CNRST), 10500 Rabat, Morocco.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Natural and Mathematics Science, University of Prishtina, 10000 Prishtina, Kosovo.
⁵ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University of Gaza, Gaza 01277, Palestine.
⁶ Biology Department, FSTE, University Moulay Ismail, BP. 609, 52000 Errachidia, Morocco.
⁷ Department of Scientific translation, Faculty of Translation, University of Bahri, Khartoum, Bahri 11111, Sudan.
⁸ Department of Food Science, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, Laval University, 2325, Quebec City, QC G1 V 0A6, Canada.
⁹ Department of Botany and Microbiology, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 11451, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
¹⁰ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ibn Zohr University, Laayoune 70000, Morocco.

Abstract

In an attempt to examine novel adsorbents in accessing an ideal adsorption system, this study aimed to help understand the main and secondary characteristics of a Moroccan natural clay. X-ray fluorescence, infrared, and scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analysis (SEM-EDX) were used for the identification. The findings demonstrate that this Clay is composed of a mixture of quartz, calcite, magnetite, and Rutile in very high proportions. SEM revealed the presence of clay grains in the presence of fine particles and irregularly contoured sticks. The results of semiquantitative detection by EDX also reveal the presence of certain mineral species (Si, Al, Mg, Fe, K, Cl, S, Ca, and Na). The exploited kinetic technique was achieved using two different kinetic models: first- and second-order rate laws. Commensurate to the obtained results, the 2-^sec order model better described the adsorption of dye MB onto the natural clay. The results confirmed that the adsorption process followed the Langmuir model with the high coefficient correlation obtained which are very close to 1. In the sequel, DFT results revealed that the HOMO and LUMO surfaces of the methylene blue dye are mostly distributed on all dye parts, reflecting possible strong interactions with the clay. The quantum descriptors investigated in this study identify the most nucleophilic and electrophilic centers that can be used to suggest a suitable mechanism for the adsorption of the dye by the clay. The values of enthalpy ΔH⁰ and entropy ΔS⁰ of activation were -15.88 kJ mol^-1 and -0.021 J mol^-1 K^-1, respectively, show that the nature of the adsorption process of MB on clay is exothermic and the order of distribution of the dye molecules on the adsorbent increases with respect to that of the solution so the negative values of ΔG⁰ (from -9. 62 to -8.99 kJ mol^-1) indicate that the adsorption process is spontaneous.