RAPID REMOVAL OF METHYLENE BLUE BY ZnS:Cu-NPs-AC: A RESPONSE SURFACE METHODOLOGY APPROACH

The focus of this research is on the rapid ultrasound-assisted removal of Methylene blue (MB) dye from aqueous solutions using ZnS:Cu nanoparticles loaded on activated carbon (ZnS:Cu-NPAC) as a low cost and environmental friendly adsorbent. The adsorbent was characterized by FESEM, FTIR and XRD. The effect of variables such as adsorbent dosage, sonication time and initial concentration of MB on the removal percentages of MB dye was investigated by central composite design (CCD) under response surfac methodology (RSM) while pH was optimized separately. It was shown that the adsorption of MB follows the pseudo-second-order rate equation. A small amount of the adsorbent was able to remove more than 99.5% of MB dye rapidly with high adsorption capacity (106.9 mg/g for MB). It is worth to note that the optimum adsorption of MB dye occurred at neutral pH, which is an advantage of our work.