Removal of Dimethyl Phthalate from Aqueous Solution by Synthetic Modified Nano Zeolite Using Cu2O Nanoparticles

In this paper, a novel nano crystalline sodalite was synthesized and characterized by XRF, XRD, SEM and FTIR analysis. Cu2O nanoparticles (30-60 nm) were loaded on nano zeolite bed and utilized as an adsorbent to remove dimethyl phthalate. The SEM-EDX of modified zeolite indicates that the amount of copper loading on the zeolite was 4.5 wt%. Modified nano zeolite was used as an effective adsorbent for removal of dimethyl phthalate from aqueous solutions in batch method. Results showed that Cu2O nanoparticles have a significant effect on the dimethyl phthalate sorption (adsorption rates were 92.98% with 10, 0.4g and 55min of pH, adsorbent dose and contact time, respectively for modified zeolite). The kinetic studies showed that the dimethyl phthalate sorption process was well described by the pseudo second order kinetic model. Also, Langmuir isotherm provided the best fit to the equilibrium data with maximum adsorption capacity of 20.41 mg/g for modified zeolite. Experiments showed increase of temperature has a posetive effect on the dimethyl phthalate sorption process by nano zeolite. Thermodynamic parameters showed that the sorption of dimethyl phthalate onto zeolite was feasible, spontaneous and endothermic under studied conditions.