CuO/ZEOLITE COMPOSITE: EFFECT OF ALKALINE ENVIRONMENT ON PHYSICOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES AND THE ADSORPTION CAPACITY OF METHYLENE BLUE

Abstract

This study presented the effect of NaOH concentrations on the synthesis of CuO/zeolite X composite (CZX). From XRD result, the characteristic peaks of zeolite X (ZX) and CuO were found. The vibrations of the above components were also shown in the FTIR results. The morphology of composite was characterized by a fairly uniform dispersion of CuO rods onto the ZX surface. The MB adsorption efficiencies of ZX and CZX3 were 58.47% and 84.15%, respectively, indicating the improvement on the adsorption ability using CZX3. At pH 7, a composite dose of 0.5 g/L, a MB concentration of 50 mg/L and contact time of 30 min, the adsorption efficiency and capacity of CZX3 reached 80.33% and 95.42 mg/g, respectively. The MB adsorption process of CZX followed the Sips model (R² = 0.991) and pseudo-second-order kinetic (R² = 0.999). The composite can be reused through three cycles with a reduction in the efficiency lower than 10% compared to the fresh composite.