Sequestration of methylene blue dye from aqueous solution by magnetic biocomposite: Three level Box–Behnken experimental design optimization and kinetic studies

Abstract

An attempt was made to maximize the sequestration of methylene blue (MB) dye from aqueous solution using magnetic biocomposite (WH/MnFe2O4) synthesized by chemical co-precipitation method. WH/MnFe2O4 was characterized by different techniques such as scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared, and Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. An ideal experimental design was carried out based on three-factors, three-level Box–Behnken design using response surface methodology in the lab-scale batch study. The adsorption of MB dye on to WH/MnFe2O4 has been found to be highly significant with very low probability (p) values (<0.0001) based on the analysis of variance statistical value. The kinetics of the dye sorption followed the pseudo-second-order equation (R2 > 0.996).