Fabrication and adsorption studies of paste/TiO 2 nanocomposites through recycling of spent dry batteries

In this work, paste@TiO 2 nanocomposite was manufactured via an ultrasonication process, and the obtained nanomaterials were investigated using various characterization techniques (XRD, BET, SEM, and FTIR). The findings indicated a high crystallinity of the paste@TiO 2 nanocomposite material with a crystallite size of 12.16 nm and a specific surface area of 71.5 m 2 /g, respectively. The elimination capability of Congo red (CR) dye from an aqueous solution was examined under different experimental conditions such as the initial concentration of the adsorbate, contact time, and initial pH solution, and the best equilibrium isotherm and kinetic model for the uptake of CR dye were investigated. Adsorbent paste@TiO 2 presented rapid kinetics and high efficiency of CR dye elimination, which give an effective adsorption performance of CR dye with an ability of 121 mg/g and a short contact time of 3.7 min under optimized requirements. The adsorption mechanism of CR onto paste@TiO 2 nanocomposite was studied by FTIR.