Sol-gel synthesis, computational chemistry, and applications of Cao nanoparticles for the remediation of methyl orange contaminated water

Nanoparticles are known for their outstanding properties such as particle size, surface area, optical and electrical properties. These properties have significantly boasted their applications in various surface phenomena. In this work, calcium oxide nanoparticles were synthesized from periwinkle shells as an approach towards waste management through resource recovery. The sol gel method was used for the synthesis. The nanoparticles were characterized using X-Ray diffractometer (XRD), Fourier Transformed Infra-Red Spectrophotometer (FTIR), Brunauer Emmett Teller (BET), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and ultra violet visible spectrophotometer (UV-visible). while DLS and SEM underestimate the particle diameter, the BET analysis reveals surface area of 138.998 m2/g, pore volume = 0.167 m3/g and pore diameter of 2.47 nm. The nanoparticles were also employed as an adsorbent for the purification of dye (methyl orange) contaminated water. The adsorbent showed excellent removal efficiency (up to 97 %) for the dye through the mechanism of physical adsorption. The adsorption of the dye fitted the Langmuir and Temkin models. Analysis of FTIR spectrum after adsorption complemented with computational chemistry modelling to reveal the imine nitrogen group as the site for the adsorption of the dye unto the nanomaterials. The synthesized nanomaterials have an average particle size of 24 nm, showed a unique XRD peak and is thermally and mechanically stable within the investigated temperature range (30 to 70 & DEG;C).