Characterization of novel pectin zirconium tungstosilicate hybrid ion exchanger and its adsorptive remediation of environmental pollutants

In the present article, pectin-supported zirconium tungstosilicate hybrid ion exchanger (PZTS) was synthesized and characterized the same using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffractometry, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Ion exchange capacity (IEC), elution behavior and effects of eluent concentration on IEC, thermal and chemical effects on IEC and distribution studies have been performed. From these studies, it is found that PZTS has an IEC approximately equal to 1.22 meq/g which is found to be relatively higher than its inorganic counterpart zirconium tungstosilicate (ZTS). Apart from that, PZTS was discovered to be thermally stable as it possesses 42.63 % IEC of its initial value even at 500 °C. According to distribution studies, PZTS was found to be relatively higher selective for Pb²⁺. Furthermore, based on distribution coefficient values, binary separations of metal ions were accomplished on the PZTS ion exchanger column. The applicability of PZTS was also examined for methylene blue (MB) dye removal from an aqueous solution. This experiment depicts that 0.6 g adsorbent removes approximately 97 % of the MB dye from 20 ppm dye solution at 9 pH within 80 min of mixing. The data are best fitted in Langmuir isotherm (with R² = 0.9996) and pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Thermodynamic studies show that the removal of MB by PZTS is spontaneous and exothermic. It was also determined that PZTS has antimicrobial properties against Escherichia coli.