Biocompatible Ionic Liquids Functionalized Activated Carbon of Local Agri-Waste for Wastewater Purification and Cytotoxic Evaluation of Purified Water

Developing clean technologies to sustain the environment by fulfilling Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is one of the biggest challenges these days. This study was carried out to develop an economic, eco-safe, noncytotoxic biosorbent for wastewater treatment. The activated charcoal of local agri-waste was functionalized with biocompatible ionic liquids prepared from natural precursors; choline and saturated fatty acids. Resultant materials were characterized via FTIR, SEM and XRD analyses and used for sorption of orange G (OG) and methyl yellow (MY) dyes from aqueous solutions. Batch sorption studies were carried out to optimize different operational parameters as well as for isothermal, kinetic and thermodynamic studies. The results showed percentage removal as high as 97% after 1.5 h at ambient conditions such as room temperature using only 20 mg of ionic liquid functionalized biosorbent. Biosorbent and ionic liquids were highly recyclable. Cell viability tests validated the biocompatibility of the biosorbents as the obtained purified water was noncytotoxic.