Functionalization of Silica Nanoparticles by 5-Chloro-8-quinolinol as a New Nanocomposite for the Efficient Removal and Preconcentration of Al3+ Ions from Water Samples

Asma S Al-Wasidi; Hanadi A Katouah; Fawaz A Saad; Ehab A Abdelrahman

doi:10.1021/acsomega.3c00413

Functionalization of Silica Nanoparticles by 5-Chloro-8-quinolinol as a New Nanocomposite for the Efficient Removal and Preconcentration of Al³⁺ Ions from Water Samples

ACS Omega. 2023 Apr 19;8(17):15276-15287. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.3c00413. eCollection 2023 May 2.

Authors

Asma S Al-Wasidi¹, Hanadi A Katouah², Fawaz A Saad², Ehab A Abdelrahman^{3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh 11671, Saudi Arabia.
² Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah 21955, Saudi Arabia.
³ Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU), Riyadh 11623, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Benha University, Benha 13518, Egypt.

Abstract

In this work, silica nanoparticles were modified by 5-chloro-8-quinolinol as a new nanocomposite for the efficient elimination and preconcentration of Al³⁺ ions from several water sources. The fabricated composite was characterized utilizing XRD, SEM, FT-IR, TEM, CHN elemental analyzer, and N₂ adsorption/desorption analyzer. The XRD demonstrated the existence of a wide peak at 2θ = 30°. Also, all the peaks of silica were severely reduced, which confirms the success of loading the 5-chloro-8-quinolinol on the surface of the silica. The SEM and TEM images demonstrated that the composite resembled cotton, and this confirms that 5-chloro-8-quinolinol was successfully loaded on the silica surface. The specific surface area, the average pore size, and the total pore volume of the synthesized composite are 80.53 m²/g, 3.26 nm, and 0.185 cc/g, respectively. In addition, the greatest uptake capacity of the synthesized composite toward aluminum ions is 95.06 mg/g. The results indicated that the adsorption of aluminum ions onto the silica/5-chloro-8-quinolinol composite follows the Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second-order model. Moreover, the adsorption of aluminum ions by the silica/5-chloro-8-quinolinol composite is spontaneous, chemical, and thermodynamically favorable. The values of % recovery were more than 97%, whereas the values of % RSD were less than 3.5%. Hence, this confirms the effectiveness of the proposed method in the determination of aluminum ions in real water samples.