Process Safety and Environmental Protection 1 0 2 ( 2 0 1 6 ) 85–97

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Process Safety and Environmental Protection

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/psep

Preparation of Nickel hydroxide nanoplates

modified activated carbon for Malachite Green
removal from solutions: Kinetic, thermodynamic,
isotherm and antibacterial studies

Shilpi Agarwal a , Farzin Nekouei b,∗∗ , Hanieh Kargarzadeh c ,

Shahram Nekouei b , Inderjeet Tyagi d , Vinod Kumar Gupta a,d,∗
a Department of Applied Chemistry, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
b Young Researchers and Elite Club, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
c Faculty of Science and Technology, School of Chemical Sciences and Food Technology, Polymer Research Center

(PORCE), Universiti Kebangsan Malaysia (UKM), 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

d Chemistry Department, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee 247667, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: An extremely small size novel adsorbent, nickel hydroxide nanoplate loaded on activated
Received 15 October 2015 carbon (Ni(OH)2 -NP-AC) was synthesized using a simple, low cost and highly efficient
Received in revised form 18 January method. The developed adsorbent was used for the removal of hazardous MG dye from the
2016 aqueous solution. To evaluate the importance of Ni(OH)2 nanoplates on the adsorption and
Accepted 20 February 2016 removal process, the contact time of virgin AC and Ni(OH)2 -NP-AC were compared (under the
same conditions) that the results showed Ni(OH)2 nanoplate had a crucial role in the removal
or adsorption process. The surface unique textural and morphological properties such as
Keywords: high surface area (>960 m2 g−1 ) and low pore size (<3.5 nm) made it possible for efficient and
Nickel hydroxide nanoplates, rapid removal of MG. Subsequently, the impact of various influential variables such as pH,
Activated carbon adsorbent dosage, initial dye concentration, contact time and temperature were examined
Adsorption and optimized. The adsorption kinetic and equilibrium data of MG were found well fitted
Malachite Green and found to be in good agreement with pseudo-second-order and Langmuir models, respec-
Liquid phase tively. Finally, antibacterial activity of the synthesized nanoplates was evaluated by testing
Antibacterial study against some Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. The results of this antibacterial
testing indicated that the synthesized nanoplates showed effective bactericidal activity.
© 2016 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
One of main environmental pollution or hazard is the indus-
trial effluents containing highly color dyes with significant
amount of organic solids (Crini, 2006). The presence of such
toxic contaminants in aqueous body leads to generation of
several detrimental and hazardous impacts on the aquatic
life due to their mutagenic and carcinogenic effects. The dyes
discharging in environment are produced by textile, paper
and printing activities. So, increasing demand and shortage
of clean water sources due to the rapid development of
industrialization, population growth and long-term droughts
have become an issue worldwide. With this growing demand,
various practical strategies and solutions have been adopted

∗
Corresponding author at: Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Chemistry Department, Roorkee 247667, Uttarakhand, India.
Tel.: +91 1332285801; fax: +91 133227356.
∗∗
Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 081674281/+39 3273378505.
E-mail addresses: F.nekouei@hotmail.com, Farzin.nekouei@unina.it (F. Nekouei), vinodfcy@gmail.com, vinodfcy@iitr.ac.in
(V. Kumar Gupta).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psep.2016.02.011
0957-5820/© 2016 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
86 Process Safety and Environmental Protection 1 0 2 ( 2 0 1 6 ) 85–97
to yield more viable water resources (Chong et al., 2010).
The discharge of highly colored waste is not only aestheti-
cally displeasing, but it also impedes light penetration, thus
upsetting biological processes within a stream. In addition,
many dyes are toxic to some organisms and may cause direct
destruction of aquatic communities (Mohammadi et al.,
2011).
Various methods have been proposed for removal of
dyes from wastewaters such as coagulation and flocculation
(Panswed and Wongchaisuwan, 1986), oxidation or ozonation
(Malik and Saha, 2003; Koch et al., 2002), membrane separa-
tion (Ciardelli et al., 2000), adsorption (Sadegh et al., 2015a,b;
El-Bindary et al., 2014). Among these methods, adsorption is a
reliable method due to its simplicity, high efficiency and low
cost (Wei et al., 2014).
Malachite Green (MG) has numerous industrial applica-
tions namely dyeing of silk, leather, plastics, paper and others
and their appearance leads to detrimental effect on flora
and fauna ecosystem following inhalation and/or ingestion
(Ghaedi et al., 2014; Culp and Beland, 1996) and produce tox-
icity to respiratory system and reduced fertility in humans
(Srivastava et al., 2004). MG with complex chemical structure
is resistant to light and oxidizing agents and the efficiency
removal of MG by biological treatment and chemical precipi-
tation is low (DoganUluozlu et al., 2008).
Nanotechnology is one of the fast developing technologies
with demanding products in various fields, due to their tiny
size (10−9 m) and large surface area (White et al., 2006). The
research on nanoparticles has attracted wide attention during
the last decade thanks to their unusual and size depend-
ent and has been used in different fields (Taylor et al., 2013;
Boisseau and Loubaton, 2011). Recently, nanoparticles have
been used for modification of activated carbon as promising
and effective new sorbents for removal of dyes form solu-
tions because of their large surface area (Nekouei et al., 2015;
Gupta et al., 2015; Vitela-Rodriguez and Rangel-Mendez, 2013;
Asfaram et al., 2015).
Nickel hydroxide compounds stimulated a large interest
in industrial and technical applications, for example as the
active materials in electrochemical cycling and as a photocat-
alyst to remove organic dyes (Zhang et al., 2013). Furthermore,
the feasibility of Ni(OH)2 and NiO nanomaterials for their
application in water treatment is also reported and evaluated
(Song and Gao, 2008).
In this work, the Ni(OH)2 nanoplate loaded on activated
carbon was used for the removal of malachite green dye from
aqueous phase. Moreover, for the first time the role of Ni(OH)2
nanoplates on the adsorption of MG was discussed by compar-
ing the result of contact time for virgin AC and Ni(OH)2 -NP-AC.
Different analytical parameters affecting the adsorption like
pH, initial dye concentration, temperature, contact time, and
adsorbent dose were evaluated. The adsorption kinetic and
equilibrium data of MG on this adsorbent were tested and
discussed by different models. Furthermore, different ther-
modynamic parameters were calculated. Finally, antibacterial
activity of the synthesized nanoplates loaded on activated car-
bon was evaluated.
2. Experimental
2.1. Materials and chemicals
All chemicals used were analytical grade and solutions
were prepared with distilled water. Malachite Green (Table
S1 in the Supporting Information) with chemical formula
of C52 H54 N4 O12 (Sigma-Aldrich sdn Bhd, Malaysia) with
Max = 617 nm was used for the preparation of the solu-
tions of MG in desired concentrations. The working solutions
were prepared by diluting the stock solution with distilled
water. Nickel chloride (NiCl2 ), ammonium (NH3 ), ammo-
nium chloride (NH4 Cl) and 4-(1,1,3,3-tetramethylbutyl)phenyl-
polyethylene glycol (Triton X-100 or TX-100) were purchased
from Sigma-Aldrich Co.
2.1.1. Precipitation method for preparation of Ni(OH)2
nanoplates
Nanoplates were synthesized by precipitation method using
NiCl2 as initial chemical and ammonium as precipitation
agent. 0.3 g of NiCl2 was dissolved in 50 mL distilled water
in a 100 mL flask. Then, after adding 1 mL of 0.02 M Triton
X-100, 9 mL NH3 4 M and 1 mL NH4 Cl 1 M were added slowly
under magnetic stirring at 50 ◦ C (pH ≤ 11). The green suspen-
sion remained under a constant and strong stirring for 45 min.
Subsequently, the suspension was filtered and washed several
times by a mixture of distilled water and ethanol to remove
impurities. Finally, the obtained precipitation was dried in
an ambient condition, vacuum oven: 0.1 MPa, for 7 h before
being characterized. Scheme S1 (Supporting information)
reveals a possible formation mechanism for PbO nanosheet
networks.
2.1.2. Preparation of Ni(OH)2 -NPs-AC
The precursor materials were mixed as explained in Section
2.1.1. 5 g of AC was added to the suspension of Ni(OH)2 in an
ultrasonic bath, until the uniform and green suspension was
obtained. The mixture was maintained at room temperature
over a night (ca. 10 h) after adjusting the pH at 11. After filter-
ing the alkaline solution, Ni(OH)2 -NPs-AC was washed several
times with distilled water and dried in ambient condition and
used as such for further experiments.
2.1.3. Role of Ni(OH)2 nanoplates
The Ni(OH)2 nanoplates loaded on AC can confer some crucial
properties to the AC. The three of the most important of those
are (1) It results in the enhancement of the surface area and
increasing the number of active sites leading to improve the
adsorption capacity and efficiency; (2) it decreases adsorption
time and causes very rapid adsorption of MG, only by using a
very low amount of adsorbent dose i.e. 0.035, maximum 99.8%
of the adsorption in 20 min for 20 mg L−1 of MG; (3) Improving
the antibacterial activity of AC (see Section 3.10). Therefore, it
is needed to coat Ni(OH)2 nanoplates onto the AC to perform
an efficient and maximum adsorption. To further confirm the
remarkable role of Ni(OH)2 nanoplates on the adsorption of
MG, we performed a couple of studies under the same con-
ditions of Ni(OH)2 -NPs-AC for the virgin AC (20 mg L−1 of MG,
0.035 g of AC, 323.15 K) in the pH range of 4 to 9. The results
showed that the maximum removal (94.1%) was achieved
around 165 h at pH 8. With regard the fact that one of the
most important parameters in designing a low cost wastewa-
ter treatment system is equilibrium time (Taghizadeh et al.,
2013); Hence, the role of Ni(OH)2 nanoplates is crucial to save
time and cost as well as increasing the efficiency of adsorption
(99.8% > 94.1%).
 Process Safety and Environmental Protection 1 0 2 ( 2 0 1 6 ) 85–97
2.2. Instrumentation
2.2.1. X-ray diffraction
X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurement was conducted using a
Bruker AXS-D8 Advance model system. The diffracted inten-
sity of the Cu K␣ radiation (0.154 nm, 40 kV, and 40 mA) was
measured over a 2 range between 5.0 and 80.
2.2.2. Microscopy
The field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM)
was performed on Zeiss Supra, model 55VP, Germany. Trans-
mission electron microscopy (TEM) imaging techniques were
performed using a Hitachi HT7700 microscope operated at
120.0 kV. A droplet of a diluted suspension of Ni(OH)2 in
ethanol, was deposited on a Cu grid covered with a thin carbon
film.
2.2.3. Infrared spectroscopy
Fourier transform Infrared spectroscopy equipped with an
attenuated total reflectance accessory configured with a KSR-5
crystal (ATR) (FT-IR (ATR)) Perkin Elmer, was used for recording
IR spectrum in the region 4000–400 cm−1 .
2.2.4. Light scattering
Particle size and size distribution of the Ni(OH)2 nanoplates
were measured by laser light scattering (Zetasizer Nanoseries,
Malvern Instruments Co.). A diluted suspension of Ni(OH)2 in a
solution of NH4 Cl was used for characterization. The material
absorption unit was 0.001 w/v%.
2.2.5. UV–vis spectroscopy
A double beam spectrophotometer (UV-1800, Shimadzu,
Japan) was used for determination of MG concentration at
617 nm.
2.2.6. Surface area analysis
Surface area and pore size distribution of the sorbent
was determined from the corresponding nitrogen adsorp-
tion desorption isotherms at 77 K using a Micromeritics
ASAP 2020 system. The surface area was determined by
the Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET), Langmuir and
Barrett–Joyner–Halenda the (BJH) equations and pore size dis-
tribution was calculated by using BET and BJH equations.
2.3. Measurements of dye uptake
Using the linear regression equation, obtained by plotting its
calibration curve, concentrations of MG were estimated. At
room temperature and time intervals in the range of 1–25 min,
the dye adsorption capacity of adsorbent was estimated and
it was observed that the equilibrium was established after 15
and 20 min for 10 and 20 mg L−1 , respectively. The effect of
some variables affecting the adsorption removal of MG such
as pH, adsorbent dosage, initial dye concentration, tempera-
ture, and contact time were evaluated by batch experiments.
50 mL of 10 and 20 mg L−1 of MG in 100 mL Erlenmeyer flasks
was agitated on a stirrer at 400 rpm at room temperature and
obtained experimental data at various times, temperatures
and concentrations was fitted to different models. The per-
centage adsorption R was calculated as:
C − C 
0 t
% Dye removal, R= × 100
C0
87
where C0 (mg L−1 ) and Ct (mg L−1 ) are the dye concentration at
initial and after time t, respectively.
The amount of adsorbed MG at equilibrium (qe (mg g−1 ))
was calculated by
V
qe = (C0 − Ce ) (2)
W
where C0 (mg L−1 ) and Ce (mg L−1 ) are the initial and equi-
librium dye concentrations in solution, respectively. V is the
volume of the solution (L), and W is the mass (g) of the used
adsorbent.
2.4. Adsorption kinetic studies
The effect of contact time in the 50 mL of MG solution concen-
trations in the range of 1.0–25 min in the presence of 0.035 g
of Ni(OH)2 -NPs-AC dispersed in solution by the agitation of
the solution at 400 rpm at room temperature. MG concentra-
tion was quantified and the actual adsorbed MG at time t, qt
(mg g−1 ), was determined by the following equation:
V
qt = (C0 − Ct ) (3)
W
where C0 (mg L−1 ) and Ct (mg L−1 ) are the concentration of dye
at initial and any time t, respectively. V is the volume of the
solution (L), and W is the mass (g) of the adsorbent.
2.5. Antibacterial analysis
Antibacterial activity of the sorbent was evaluated via disk
diffusion Agar (DDA) method. Three different types of bacte-
ria were examined, Escherichia coli (E266), Bacillus subtilis (B145),
and Staphylococcus aureus (S276). The test is carried out by pla-
cing 6 mm diameter of paper disc containing antibiotic onto a
plate on which microbes are growing. The microbe culture is
standardized to 0.5 McFarland standards which are approxi-
mately 10+8 cells. Not more than 6 discs should be placed on
the same agar–agar plate. Streptomycin standard, bactericidal
antibiotic, are used for each bacteria as reference. 5 ␮l of solu-
tion pours on a filter paper plate then put it in the agar–agar
plate which bacteria dispersed on it at 37 ◦ C for 4 h. The plates
are inverted and incubate for 18–24 h, 24–48 h or until sufficient
growth has occurred. After incubation, each plate is examined.
The diameters of the zones of complete inhibition (as judged
by the unaided eye) are measured, including the diameter of
the disc. Zones are measured to the nearest whole millimeter,
using sliding a caliper or a ruler, which is held on the back of
the inverted Petri plate. The experiments were performed in
duplicates.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Characterization of Ni(OH)2 nanoplates
3.1.1. FT-IR-ATR characterization
In order to evaluate characteristic of functional groups of the
synthesized nanoplates, FT-IR-ATR spectrum was used as a
powerful identification tools. In fact, FT-IR spectrum gives
information about the synthesis conditions of synthesized
compounds. According to Fig. 1, the sharp peak at
3638.18 cm−1 attributes to O H (disturbed hydroxyl) stretch-
ing mode of the free Ni OH groups. The broad absorption
band observed at 3369.46 cm−1 corresponds to the O H (free
(1)
hydroxyl) stretching vibration which is the characteristic of
88 Process Safety and Environmental Protection 1 0 2 ( 2 0 1 6 ) 85–97
Fig. 1 – FT-IR (ATR) spectrum of Ni(OH)2 nanoplates.
Ni(OH)2 . The sharp band centered around 1700–1600 cm−1
(1635.43 cm−1 ) is due to the bending mode of H O H vibra-
tion of water molecules (Motlagh et al., 2011). The bands at
1361.58 and 1106.16 cm−1 may be due to the presence of CO3 2−
anions from Ni(OH)2 interaction with air (Motlagh et al., 2011).
The band at about 650.8 cm−1 is attributed to the Ni O H
vibration. A small weak peak centered around 461.1 cm−1
is assigned to the Ni O stretching vibration (Kamath and
Subbanna, 1992; Soler-Illia et al., 1999; Ni et al., 2006).
3.1.2. FESEM and TEM characterizations
The FE-SEM is a powerful tool for determination of the
particle size, shape, and porosity as well as surface morphol-
ogy and some physical properties. FESEM images of Ni(OH)2
nanoplates are presented in Fig. 2(a and b). Fig. 2(b), with
higher magnification, reveals that the Ni(OH)2 nanoplates
with disordered porous superstructure, have a considerable
number of pores with irregular pores which are suitable for
trapping and adsorption of dyes into these pores. In other
words, there are holes and cave type openings on the surface
Fig. 2 – (a and b) FESEM images of the Ni(OH)2 nanoplates. (c and d) TEM images of the Ni(OH)2 nanoplates.
of the adsorbent that accessible more surface area available
for adsorption (Khattri and Singh, 1999). It is clearly indi-
cated from the SEM images that in spite of applying highest
magnification degree, morphology of nanoplates are not char-
acterized properly due to aggregation and extremely small
average diameter of nanoplates (<20 nm) that it is very smaller
than other reported works in literatures (De Moura et al., 2011;
Jiang et al., 2014).
Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a microscopy
technique with higher resolution and a powerful and comple-
mentary tool for analyzing of nanoparticles specially when
the size of nanoparticles is under 20 nm. We further charac-
terized the Ni(OH)2 structure using TEM technique. Fig. 2(c
and d) present TEM images of the Ni(OH)2 nanostructure. The
images confirm the nanoplate-shaped of Ni(OH)2 as well as
indicating and acknowledging the extremely small average
diameter of nanoplates. The TEM images further confirm
the nanoporous nature of the particles in the nanorange and
highly agglomerated.
3.1.3. X-ray diffraction characterization
X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) is a rapid analytical technique
primarily used for phase identification of a crystalline mate-
rial and can provide information on unit cell dimensions. As
can be seen in Fig. 3, the Ni(OH)2 nanoplates exhibits peaks
(2 angles) at 18.9, 33.1, 38.4, 58.9, and 62.6 correspond to the
[0 0 1], [1 0 0], [1 0 1], [1 1 0], and [1 1 1], crystal planes of hexago-
nal lattice structure (JCPDS number 00-001-1047). The crystal
size was calculated according to Debye–Scherrer formula rep-
resented below (Sun et al., 2004)
0.9
D= (4)
ˇ cos 
where  is the X-ray wavelength of Cu K␣ radiation (0.154 nm),
ˇ is the full width at half maximum (FWMH), D = grain size,
and  (Bragg angle) is the angle obtained from 2 values cor-
responding to maximum intensity peak in XRD pattern. From
the equation, the mean crystal size of Ni(OH)2 nanoplate was
 Process Safety and Environmental Protection 1 0 2 ( 2 0 1 6 ) 85–97
Fig. 3 – X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern of the Ni(OH)2
nanoplates.
calculated to be 3.26 nm and verified extremely small aver-
age crystal size of the synthesized nanoplates. Furthermore,
the obtained average crystal size by Debye–Scherrer formula
in this work is comparable or better than those previously
reported in literatures (Cheng et al., 2011).
3.1.4. Dynamic light scattering analysis
This technique has some advantages namely non-invasive
and non-destructive, small sample volume, great dynamic
range of sizing (2 nm to 10 ␮m), and wide range of con-
centrations. Fig. S1 shows the dynamic light scattering
(DLS) histogram of Ni(OH)2 nanoplates. The volume aver-
age hydrodynamic diameter for the Ni(OH)2 nanoplates was
found less than 3.2 nm (about 3.139 nm) with size distribu-
tion of 0.445 polydispersity (Figs. S1a and b). The obtained
size is in agreement with the crystalline size obtained
using Debye–Scherrer formula that indicates the synthesized
nanoplates are extremely small.
3.1.5. Surface area analysis
The surface area and porosity are two important physical
properties that impact the quality and utility of solid phase
chemicals. The Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) technique
is the most common method for determining the surface
area of powders and porous materials. BET experiments give
useful information on the adsorbent properties such as sur-
face area, total pore volume and micropore area. Fig. S2
gives the nitrogen adsorption/desorption isotherms and pore
diameter distribution of the adsorbent. Fig. S2a, adsorption
isotherm plot, shows that adsorbent possessed both micro
and mesopores. Also, it indicates that the adsorption con-
sists of disordered materials and the distribution of pore
size and shape is not well defined. Fig. S2b shows that the
adsorbent possessed appreciable narrow micro-porosity. The
surface area of Ni(OH)2 -NPs-AC was found to be 960.3 m2 g−1 .
Total pore volume was 0.5042 cm3 g−1 and average pore diam-
eter (BET) was less than 3.5 nm with high C-value of 307.12 that
means a strong interaction from N2 with surface. Totally, the
measured BET values show that the Ni(OH)2 nanoplate has a
good potential for absorbing dyes and pigments. Total surface
properties of adsorbent are presented in Table S2. However,
the surface area of Ni(OH)2 nanoplates before loading on the
AC was 260 m2 g−1 that it is better or comparable with reported
previous studies (Cheng et al., 2011).
89
100
95
Removal (%)
90
10 ppm
85
20 ppm
80
0 2 4 6 8 10
pH
Fig. 4 – Effect of pH on the removal of MG [conditions: room
temperature, adsorbent dosage of 0.035 g in 50 mL, contact
time of 15 and 20 min, dye concentrations of 10 and
20 mg L−1 ].
3.2. Effect of pH on the adsorption efficiency
The pH of the aqueous solution is an important variable
that influences the adsorption of anions and cations at the
solid–liquid interfaces (Ye et al., 2010). The effect of pH on the
MG adsorption on the adsorbent for pH between 2.0 and 8.0
is presented in Fig. 4. It can be found that removal efficiency
increased with increase pH level. In another words, the uptake
of the dye by adsorbent increased as the pH increased from
2.0 to 6.5. At lower pH levels that 6.5, the surface to carry more
positively charges and thus would more significantly repulse
the positively charged species in solution. Therefore, the lower
adsorption of MG at lower pH values stemmed from increas-
ing repulsion between the more positively charged MG species
and positively charged surface sites (adsorbent protonation).
Moreover, at lower pH, H+ ions compete with MG ions for the
surface binding-sites of the adsorbent (Ye et al., 2010). It is con-
sidered that adsorbents had a maximum adsorption capacity
and maximum qe at the pH 6.5 and beyond it did not change
significantly. Therefore, the optimum pH for MG adsorption
was optimized at 6.5.
3.3. Effect of agitation speed and contact time on the
dye adsorption
It is obvious that the rate of diffusion and convection are
dependent on the stirring rate. The effect of stirring rate
on the adsorption process in the range of 100–500 rpm was
investigated and found that by rising the rpm until 400, the
adsorption efficiency was improved and after that the adsorp-
tion efficiency did not change significantly. This phenomenon
can be ascribed to enhancing in convection, diffusion and
mass transfer as well as decreasing in equilibrium time. The
results are given in Table 1.
One of the most important parameters in designing a
low cost wastewater treatment system is equilibrium time
(Taghizadeh et al., 2013). Also, adsorbent surface properties
like pore size, pore volume and surface area are crucial factors
in removal time. The effect of contact time on the adsorp-
tion of MG dye onto the Ni(OH)2 nanoplates loaded activated
carbon was explored in the range of 1.0 to 25 min at room tem-
perature and is shown in Fig. 5. As it can be seen from Fig. 5,
the removal percentage of MG dye at initial dye concentrations
of 10 and 20 mg L−1 at pH 6.5 increased with increasing con-
tact time and reached constant and maximum value after 15
and 20 min, respectively. Also, it was found that the adsorption
90 Process Safety and Environmental Protection 1 0 2 ( 2 0 1 6 ) 85–97

Table 1 – Effect of agitation speed on the removal of MG.

Time Removal (%)
(min)
100 rpm 200 rpm 300 rpm 400 rpm 500 rpm

1 70.0 83.2 87.6 90.9 90.7

2 79.5 88.7 92.4 94.3 94.4
3 85.3 93.0 94.0 96.9 96.9
5 90.7 96.0 97.1 98.4 98.5
7 93.5 98.5 98.8 99.0 98.9
10 96.9 99.2 99.1
13 98.6 99.3
18 99.2

Fig. 7 – Effect of adsorbent dosage on the removal of MG

[conditions: pH 6.5, room temperature, MG concentration of
10 and 20 mg L−1 ].

fact, the limiting factor for dye adsorption is the available site
on the adsorbent. Initial dye concentration at a fixed value
of adsorbent has reverse correlation with equilibrium time
(Nekouei et al., 2015; Bulai1 and Cioanca, 2011; Víctor-Ortega
et al., 2015, 2016).

3.5. Effect of adsorbent dose

Fig. 5 – Effect of contact time on the removal of MG
[conditions: 0.035 g of Ni(OH)2 -NPs-AC in 50 mL, pH 6.5,
room temperature, MG concentration of 10 and 20 mg L−1 ].
rate was rapid at the initial stages probably due to high ratio of
vacant site to adsorbate molecule. This means that, the rapid
adsorption at the initial contact times can be attributed to the
availability of the reactive site of adsorbent, while at higher
time due to the slow pore diffusion or saturation of adsorbent
the removal rate did not alter remarkably (Ghaedi et al., 2012).
3.4. Effect of initial dye concentration
The effect of initial MG dye concentration in the range of
5–70 mg L−1 on its removal efficiency onto adsorbent was
studied. Fig. 6 shows that the MG dye removal percentage
decreased with increase in its initial concentration. Rapid
increase in initial dye concentration led to decrease in mass
transport and finally removal efficiency because of lack of
available unoccupied sites. Fig. 6 also shows that increas-
ing concentration of MG dye from 10 to 50 mg L−1 results in
decrease in removal percentage from nearly 99.8 to 89%. In
Fig. 6 – Effect of initial dye concentration on the removal of
MG [conditions: 0.035 g of Ni(OH)2 -NPs-AC in 50 mL, pH 6.5,
room temperature].
Another important factor controlling the capacity of adsor-
bent is amount of adsorbent. In this work, the percent
adsorption of MG dye on Ni(OH)2 -NPs-AC was studied using
different adsorbent dose in the range of 0.005–0.05 g at
constant MG concentrations of 10 and 20 mg L−1 . It is evi-
dent in Fig. 7 that MG adsorption increases significantly
by rising amount of adsorbent. This phenomenon may be
described by this fact that by rising amount of adsor-
bent because of being more available of the reactive sites
with high tendency for interaction with various path-
ways are soft–soft interaction, ␲–␲ and hydrogen bonding
that notably improved by electrostatic interaction (Ghaedi
et al., 2013a). The removal efficiency was maximum when
the Ni(OH)2 -NPs-AC dose was 0.7 g L−1 , after that the
removal was not significantly increased. Hence, 0.7 g L−1 was
chosen as the optimum adsorbent dose for further experi-
ments.
3.6. Effect of temperature
In order to determine whether the ongoing adsorption process
is endothermic or exothermic naturally, it is essential to eval-
uate temperature effect on the removal of MG (Nekouei et al.,
2015). The experiments (MG adsorption onto (Ni(OH)2 -NPs-AC)
carried out under conditions of 10 and 20 mg L−1 of MG con-
centrations, pH 6.5, 0.7 g L−1 of Ni(OH)2 -NPs-AC and contact
times of 15 and 20 min. As shown in Fig. 8, the removal per-
centage of MG dye increases by increasing temperature and
maximum adsorption takes place at temperature of 323.15 K.
Increasing in the amount of adsorbed dyes with rising tem-
perature suggests endothermic nature of adsorption process
and great preliminary distinguished role of temperature for
removal (Ghaedi et al., 2013b). An increase in temperature is
known not only to increase the diffusion rate of the adsorbate
molecules across the external boundary layer and within the
pores but also to modify the equilibrium capacity of the adsor-
bent for a particular adsorbate by changing the temperature
(Nekouei et al., 2015).
 Process Safety and Environmental Protection 1 0 2 ( 2 0 1 6 ) 85–97 91

The correlation coefficient was linear over the whole con-

centration range (R2 = 0.9956) that indicates sorption process
is describable with Langmuir model. To confirm this result,
the favorable or unfavorable MG adsorption onto Langmuir
model was judged by calculation of the separation factor (RL )
as follows (Huang et al., 2009):

1
RL = (6)
1 + KL C0

where KL (L mg−1 ) is the Langmuir constant and C0 (mg L−1 ) is

Fig. 8 – Effect of temperature on the removal of MG
[conditions: 0.035 g of Ni(OH)2 -NPs-AC in 50 mL at pH 6.5,
MG concentration of 10 and 20 mg L−1 ].
3.7. Adsorption equilibrium study
To reach useful information about mechanism and prop-
erties and tendency of adsorbent towards each dye, we
need to obtain adsorption parameters. Langmuir, Freund-
lich, Temkin and Dubinin–Radushkevich (D–R) are common
isotherm equations have been applied to discuss the equi-
librium characteristics for the adsorption process (Langmuir,
1916; Freundlich, 1906).
3.7.1. Langmuir adsorption isotherm model
Eq. (5) shows the well-known linear form of Langmuir’s
adsorption isotherm that used for the MG-Ni(OH)2 -NPs-AC
system. The removal process by homogenous identical site
surface with negligible interaction is described by the Lang-
muir equation (Nekouei et al., 2015)
Ce 1 Ce
= +
qe KL Qm Qm
where Ce is the equilibrium molar concentration of the dye
(mg L−1 ), qe is the number of moles of solute adsorbed per
unit weight at concentration C (mol g−1 ), Qm is the maximum
adsorption capacity, and KL Langmuir constant or adsorption
equilibrium constant (L mg−1 ) that is related to the apparent
energy of sorption. The Langmuir plot (Ce /qe versus Ce ) for MG
adsorption at room temperatures gives a straight line and the
value of Qm and KL constants and the correlation coefficients
for this model are presented in Table 2 and Fig. 9(a).
the initial concentration. If RL lies between 0 and 1, the adsorp-
tion process will be favorable. In our study, the calculated
values of RL were found to be in the range of 0–1, signing that
the adsorption process was favorable for MG-Ni(OH)2 -NPs-AC.
3.7.2. The Freundlich adsorption isotherm model
Another well-known adsorption isotherm model is Freund-
lich, for the adsorption of solutes from a liquid to a solid
surface, was evaluated for our adsorption system. The below
equation describes the Freundlich model:
1
log qe = log KF + log Ce (7)
n
where KF (mg g−1 ) and n are isotherm constants that indi-
cate the capacity and intensity of the adsorption, respectively,
the 1/n factor also signifies heterogeneity factor and ranges
between 0 and 1. For more heterogeneous surface, the value
of 1/n is close to 0 (Nekouei et al., 2015). The values of KF and n
were obtained from the intercept and slope of the line earned
by plotting log qe versus log Ce and their values are given in
Table 2 and Fig. 9(b). According to Table 4, the low correla-
tion coefficient value of this model shows its inapplicability
for interpretation of experimental data.
(5)
3.7.3. The Temkin isotherm model
The linear form of Temkin isotherm model is as follows
(Temkin and Pyzhev, 1940):
qe = BT ln KT + BT ln Ce (8)
where BT = RT/b, T is the absolute temperature in Kelvin, R is
the universal gas constant (8.314 J K−1 mol−1 ), KT is Temkin
isotherm equilibrium binding constant (L mg−1 ), BT is Con-
stant related to heat of sorption (J mol−1 ) and values of BT and

Table 2 – Isotherm parameters correlation coefficients calculated by various adsorption models onto 0.035 g of
Ni(OH)2 -NPs-AC in 50 mL, pH 6.5, and room temperature.
Isotherm Equation Parameters Adsorbent

Langmuir Ce /qe = (1/Ka Qm ) + (Ce /Qm ) −1

Qm (mg g ) 76.92
KL (L mg−1 ) 1.34
RL 0.0099–0.13
R2 0.9956

Freundlich log qe = log KF + (1/n) log Ce 1/n 0.33

KF (L mg−1 ) 34.26
R2 0.980

Temkin qe = BT lnKT + BT lnCe BT 9.88

KT (L mg−1 ) 82.85
R2 0.9527

D–R ln qe = ln QS − ˇε2 QS (mg g−1 ) 50.14

B 0.02
E (KJ mol−1 ) 5.0
R2 0.7913
92 Process Safety and Environmental Protection 1 0 2 ( 2 0 1 6 ) 85–97

Fig. 9 – (a) Langmuir isotherm for adsorption of MG onto Ni(OH)2 -NPs-AC. (b) Freundlich isotherm for adsorption of MG onto
Ni(OH)2 -NPs-AC. (c) Temkin isotherm for adsorption of MG onto Ni(OH)2 -NPs-AC. (d) D–R isotherm for adsorption of MG onto
Ni(OH)2 -NPs-AC.

KT were calculated from the plot of qe against ln Ce (Table 2). D–R equation represents the poorer applicability of the exper-
As presented in Table 2 and Fig. 9(c), the low R2 value of this imental data than the other isotherm equations.
model shows its inapplicability for interpretation of experi-
mental data. 3.8. Adsorption kinetic modeling

3.7.4. The Dubinin–Radushkevich (D–R) isotherm
D–R was another isotherm applied to evaluate the porosity,
apparent free energy and characteristic of adsorption. The
equation of D–R isotherm is as follows (Dubinin, 1960):
ln qe = ln Qs − ˇε2 (9)
where qe is the amount of the dye adsorbed per unit weight of
the adsorbent (mg g−1 ), Qs is the maximum sorption capacity
provided by the intercept (␮mol g−1 ), ˇ (mol2 J−2 ) is the activity
coefficient related to mean sorption energy, and ε (Eq. (10)) is
Polanyi potential (Radushkevich, 1949).
 1
 values of log (qe − qt ) versus t may give a linear relationship
ε = RT ln 1 + (10)
Ce
The slope of the plot of ln qe versus ε2 offers ˇ (mol2 (kJ2 )−1 )
and the intercept yields the adsorption capacity, Qs (mg g−1 ).
In order to distinguish the physical and chemical adsorption
of dye on the adsorbent, its mean free energy, E per molecule
of adsorbate (for removing a molecule from its location in
the sorption space to the infinity), can be computed by the
following equation (Dada et al., 2012):
1 from experimental qe value and low correlation coefficients
E=  (11)
2ˇ
The calculated values of D–R are given in Table 2. The
value of E calculated using Eq. (11) is 5.0 kJ mol−1 correspond-
ing to physisorption process playing an important role in the
adsorption of MG onto Ni(OH)2 -NP-AC. The value of correla-
tion coefficient obtained from D–R model is lower than other
isotherms values mentioned above (Fig. 9(d)). In this case, the
Physical and chemical characteristics of the adsorbent sys-
tem and the system conditions are the key factors in the
nature of the adsorption process. The experimental kinetic
data of MG removal assessed by some conventional models
namely pseudo first and second-order, Elovich and intraparti-
cle diffusion to study the rate and mechanism of adsorption
process. Summarized properties and constants of each model
are presented in Table 3 at initial MG concentrations of 10 and
20 mg L−1 using 0.035 g of adsorbent.
3.8.1. The pseudo-first-order model
Pseudo-first-order (PFO) model, known as Lagergren (1898)
model, presented in Eq. (12) in its linear form, by plotting the
that k1 and qe values can be determined from its slope and
intercept, respectively.
k1 t
log (qe − qt ) = log (qe ) − (12)
2.303
where qe and qt (mg g−1 ) are the amounts of MG adsorbed at
equilibrium and at time t (min), respectively, and k1 (min−1 ) is
the rate constant of the PFO model.
As can be seen in Table 3, both the distance of intercepts
show the unsuitability of this model to explain experimen-
tal data and rate of adsorption do not follow this equation.
Fig. 10(a) shows the PFO modeling on kinetic of the dye adsorp-
tion on Ni(OH)2 -NPs-AC.
3.8.2. The pseudo-second-order model
The pseudo-second order (PSO) model based on the assump-
tion that the adsorption rate is linearly related to the square
 Process Safety and Environmental Protection 1 0 2 ( 2 0 1 6 ) 85–97 93

Table 3 – Adsorption kinetic parameters at different initial MG onto 0.035 g of Ni(OH)2 -NPs-AC in 50 mL at pH 6.5, room
temperature and MG concentration of 10 and 20 mg L−1 .
Model Equation Parameters C0 (mg L−1 )

10 20

PFO log (qe − qt ) = log (qe ) − (k1 t/2.303) −1

k1 (min ) 0.35 0.25
qe(calc) (mg g−1 ) 5.53 15.32
R2 0.9155 0.8245
SSE 6.17 9.18

PSO
  
(t/qt ) = 1/ k2 q2e + (1/qe ) t
k2 (g/(mg min)) 0.32 0.047
qe(calc) (mg g−1 ) 14.03 29.07
R2 0.9962 0.9985
SSE 0.163 0.54
ho,2 (mg (g min)−1 ) 62.99 39.72

IPD qt = Kdiff t1/2 + C

Kdiff (mg g−1 min−1/2 ) 0.86 1.94
C 11.08 20.19
R2 0.990 0.997

Elovich qt = (1/ˇ ln(˛ˇ)) + (1/ˇ ln(t))

ˇ (g mg−1 ) 1.08 0.45
˛ (mg g−1 min−1 ) 3.04 E5 3.7 E4
R2 0.980 0.979

qe(exp) 14.26 28.31

of the number of unoccupied adsorption sites is expressed as conditions strongly confirm the applicability and suitabil-
(Hamoudi and Belkacemi, 2013): ity of this model to interpret experimental data. The initial
adsorption rates can be calculated from the PSO model by the
dqt following equation (Ghaedi and Mosallanejad, 2014):
= K2 (qe − qt )2 (13)
dt

t 1
1 ho,2 = K2 q2e (15)
= + t (14)
qt k2 q2e qe
and the results are presented in Table 3. It is evident that the
where k2 is the rate constant (g (mg min)−1 ). By plotting (t/qt ) initial adsorption rate decreases with intensifying the initial
versus t, the parameters qe and k2 can be estimated from MG concentration, at higher concentrations due to apparent
the slope and the intercept of the plot. Based on Table 3 and MG dimerization and difficult diffusion of large dimmers in
Fig. 10(b), the high R2 values of this model and good agree- small adsorbent pores that cause to aggravate kinetic param-
ment of calculated and experimental qe values under different eters (Nekouei et al., 2015).

Fig. 10 – (a) Plots of pseudo-first-order kinetic for MG concentrations of 10 and 20 mg L−1 . (b) Plots of pseudo-second-order
kinetic for MG concentrations of 10 and 20 mg L−1 . (c) Plots of Intraparticle diffusion model for MG concentrations of 10 and
20 mg L−1 . (d) Plots of Elovich model for MG concentrations of 10 and 20 mg L−1 .
94 Process Safety and Environmental Protection 1 0 2 ( 2 0 1 6 ) 85–97

3.8.3. Test of kinetic models
Besides the value of R2 , in order to further quantitatively ver-
ify the accuracy of both kinetic methods, the sum of error
squares (SSE) was applied. The sum of error squares is given
as (Hameed et al., 2007):

 2
qe,EXP − qe,Cal
SSE =
N The Elovich equation is a kinetic equation related to the
where N is the number of data points. The higher value of
R2 and the lower value of SSE shows the better goodness of
fit (Hameed and El-Khaiary, 2008). The values of SSE for the
pseudo first and pseudo second kinetic models are given in
Table 3. It can be seen that the SSE values for second order
kinetic model (0.163 and 0.54) are very lower than for the
pseudo first order model (6.17 and 9.18). Low values of SSE
as well as high R2 values for PSO strongly confirm the better
applicability of the PSO model.
3.8.4. Intra-particle diffusion model
Another applied rate equation for the adsorption of solute
from a liquid solution was intra particle diffusion (IPD)
model based on diffusive mass transfer that adsorption rate
expressed in terms of the square root of time (t) (Ozdes
et al., 2011). IPD is derived from Fick’s law and assumes that
the diffusion of the liquid film surrounding the adsorbent is
negligible, and intraparticle diffusion is the only rate con-
trolling step of the adsorption process. Eq. (17) shows the
mathematical expression used to study this phenomenon
(GuimarãesGusmão et al., 2013). By plotting qt versus t1/2 may
give a linear relationship that Kdiff and C values can be deter-
mined from its slope and intercept, respectively. C and Kdiff
values are related to the thickness of the boundary layer and
the IPD rate constant (mg g−1 min−1/2 ) were reported in Table 3.
In the present study, the intercepts for both concentrations
are not zero but with high correlation coefficient values that
indicate the contribution of two or more steps in the adsorp-
tion process. Therefore, there may be three stages in order of
a fast step related to external surface adsorption, IPD step and
equilibrium, respectively.
(16) 3.8.5. Elovich model
chemisorption process. This equation is often validated for
systems where the surface of the adsorbent is heterogeneous.
The linear form of the Elovich equation is given as follows
(GuimarãesGusmão et al., 2013):
1 1
qt = ln (˛ˇ) + ln (t) (18)
ˇ ˇ
where ˛ (mg g−1 min−1 ) is the initial adsorption rate and ˇ
(g mg−1 ) is the relationship between the degree of surface cov-
erage and the activation energy involved in the chemisorption.
As shown in Table 3 and Fig. 10(d), the low R2 values of these
models show their inapplicability for interpretation of exper-
imental data.
3.9. Adsorption thermodynamics
To evaluate the thermodynamic feasibility and the sponta-
neous nature of the adsorption, thermodynamic parameters
such as free energy change, enthalpy change, and entropy
were calculated. Generally, thermodynamic constants can be
obtained from the following equations:
G◦ = −RT ln Ke (19)
G◦ = H◦ − TS◦ (20)

qt = Kdiff t(1/2) + C
Fig. 10(c) displays the diffusion modeling on kinetic of the
dye adsorption on Ni(OH)2 -NPs-AC. It was mentioned that the
intercept reflects the boundary layer effect. The greater value
of the intercept verifies the greater contribution of the sur-
face sorption in the rate-limiting step. As clearly evidenced
in Fig. 10(c) and Table 3, high R2 values (≥0.99) confirm the
adsorption mechanism also follows the IPD process. Addition-
ally, if the plot of qt versus t1/2 is linear and passes through the
origin, it shows that IPD is the sole rate-limiting step.
(17) where G◦ , H◦ , S◦ , R, ke , T, are the Gibbs free energy
(kJ mol−1 ), enthalpy (kJ mol−1 ), entropy (kJ mol−1 K−1 ), the
universal gas constant (8.314 J mol−1 K−1 ), the thermody-
namic equilibrium constant, and the absolute temperature
(K), respectively. Table 4 shows that the negative values of
Gibbs free energy decreased with increasing the temperature.
This indicates the spontaneous nature and feasibility of the
adsorption via physical forces as well as high tendency of
adsorbent to the adsorbate (Nekouei et al., 2015). Furthermore,
Ke (L mol−1 ) is the Langmuir constant obtained from the plot
of Ce /qe versus Ce at different temperatures. The values of

Table 4 – Thermodynamic parameters for the adsorption of MG onto Ni(OH)2 -NPs-AC.

C0 (mg L−1 ) Temperature (K) ke G◦ (KJ mol−1 ) S◦ (J mol−1 K−1 ) H0 (KJ mol−1 ) Ea (KJ mol−1 ) S*

10 283.15 9.58 −5.32 163.3 41.04 38.99 8.9 × 10−9

293.15 16.44 −6.82
303.15 27.11 −8.32
313.15 46.06 −9.58
318.15 70.11 −10.18
323.15 78.25 −10.59

20 283.15 6.49 −4.40 158.3 40.27 37.40 2.2 × 10−8

293.15 12.94 −6.24
303.15 22.42 −7.84
313.15 39.64 −9.58
318.15 46.06 −10.13
323.15 51.42 −10.59
 Process Safety and Environmental Protection 1 0 2 ( 2 0 1 6 ) 85–97 95

By plotting ln (1 − ) versus 1/T, the activation energy (the

slope of the plot) and sticking probability (intercept) were esti-
mated and presented in Table 4.

3.10. Antibacterial studies

Antibacterial activity is related to compounds that locally kill

Fig. 11 – Vant’s Hoff plots of MG dye onto Ni(OH)2 -NPs-AC.
other parameters such as enthalpy change (H◦ ) and entropy
change (S◦ ) may be determined from the Van’t Hoff equation
(Eq. (21)):
S◦ H◦
ln Ke = − (21)
R RT
The values of (−H◦ /R) and (S◦ /R) can be obtained from
slope and intercept of Ln Ke versus 1/T curve, respectively.
The data (Fig. 11 and Table 4) show positive values of H◦
that indicate the endothermic nature of the adsorption while
the positive S◦ value suggested an increase in the random-
ness at the solid/solution interface during the adsorption of
MG onto sorbent. The predominancy of physical adsorption
was confirmed by estimating the values of activation energy
(Ea ) and sticking probability (S* ) using a modified Arrhenius
type equation related to surface coverage () as follows (Aziz
et al., 2009):
S∗ = (1 − ) e−(Ea /RT) (22)
The sticking probability (S* ) is function of the adsor-
bate/adsorbent system under investigation. The parameter
S* shows the measure of the potential of an adsorbate to
remain on the adsorbent (Roosta et al., 2014). The values
of S* , presented in Table 4, was found to be 8.9 × 10−9 and
2.2 × 10−8 that lie in the range 0 < S* < 1 and is dependent on
the temperature of the system. The surface coverage () can be
calculated from the following equation (Nekouei et al., 2015):
Ce
incapable of properly regulating transport through the plasma
 = 1− (23)
C0
bacteria or slow down their growth, without being in general
toxic to surrounding tissue (Hajipour et al., 2012). According to
reported studies in literatures nanoparticles show antibacte-
rial and antimicrobial activities (Harish et al., 2011; Nair et al.,
2011). The antibacterial effect of metal nanoparticles has been
attributed to their small size and high surface to volume ratio,
which allows them to attach closely with microbial mem-
branes and is not merely due to the release of metal ions in
solution (Morones et al., 2005).
In fact, the effectiveness of an antimicrobial agent in based
on zones of inhibition. The results of Escherichia coli (E. coli)
ATCC 51813, Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) ATCC 27661, and
Bacillus subtilis (B. subtilis) ATCC 6051 bacteria with zones of
inhibition measured in millimeters and compared with Strep-
tomycin standard, bactericidal antibiotic, are given in Table
S3. It is observable in Table S3 and Fig. S3, the zone inhibition
for Gram-positives (B145), Gram-positives (S276) and Gram-
negative (E266) are 10, 9, and 7 mm, respectively that compared
with the zone inhibition for control (32 mm) show very good
activity against bacteria. Totally, the zones inhibition for the
two Gram-positives (S. aureus and B. subtilis) are more than
Gram-negative (E. coli) that this shows higher effectiveness of
these nanoplates against the two Gram-positives. Also, these
results revealed that synthesized Ni(OH)2 nanoplates were
more effective against B. subtilis as compared to S. aureus
and E. coli. All in all, Because of having large surface area
available for interactions, the bactericidal effect of nanopar-
ticles enhance compared to large sized particles; hence, they
impart increased cytotoxicity to the microorganisms (Baker
et al., 2005). It is not understood completely the mechanism
of penetrating nanoparticles into bacteria, but studies suggest
that when bacterial culture were treated with nanoparticles,
changes takes place in its membrane morphology and cause a
significant increase in its permeability affecting proper trans-
port through the plasma membrane, leaving the bacterial cells
membrane, resulting into cell death (Stoimenov et al., 2002).

Table 5 – Comparison of performance of proposed method with some previously reported MG dye adsorption systems.
Adsorbent Adsorption Contact time Adsorbent Reference
capacity (mg g−1 ) (min) dose (g)

Neem sawdust 4.354 14 2.517 Gupta et al. (1997)

Bentonite clay 7.72 10 0.05 Tahir and Rauf (2006)
Sawdust carbon 74.1 120 1.0 Garg et al. (2003)
Chitosan bead 93.55 300 – Bekçi et al. (2008)
Rubber wood sawdust 25.8–36.3 – – Kumar and Sivanesan (2007)
Hen feather 10.3–10.7 90 0.15 Mittal (2006)
SnO2 -NP-AC 142.87 16 0.015 Shamsizadeh et al. (2014)
(Cd(OH)2 -NW-AC) 19 30–50 0.02–0.03 Ghaedi and Mosallanejad (2014)
Cyclodextrin-based material 91.9 120 0.15 Rahman et al. (2005)
Lignite activated carbon 149 60 – Önal et al. (2007)
Oil palm trunk fiber 149.35 120 – Hameed and El-Khaiary (2008)
Arundodonax root carbon 8.69 180 0.15–1.0 Zhang et al. (2008)
Ni(OH)2 -NPs-AC 76.92 15,25 0.035 This work
96 Process Safety and Environmental Protection 1 0 2 ( 2 0 1 6 ) 85–97
4. Conclusion
The extremely small average size Ni(OH)2 nanoplates were
synthesized using a simple, fast and low cost method. Results
obtained illustrated that Ni(OH)2 -NPs-AC is an efficient and
low cost adsorbent with satisfactory capacity adsorbent (76.92)
for the removal of MG in liquid phase in a short time (≤20 min).
In Table 5, the performance of the presented method has been
compared with some adsorbents reported for the removal of
some MG dye in literatures (Gupta et al., 1997; Tahir and Rauf,
2006; Garg et al., 2003; Bekçi et al., 2008; Kumar and Sivanesan,
2007; Mittal, 2006; Shamsizadeh et al., 2014; Rahman et al.,
2005; Önal et al., 2007; Zhang et al., 2008). Some analytical
influential parameters including pH, initial dye concentra-
tion, temperature, contact time and amount of adsorbent on
the MG removal percentage were well investigated and eluci-
dated. The equilibrium and kinetic studies were investigated
for the adsorption process that Langmuir isotherm and PSO
along with IPD models were suitable to describe the adsorp-
tion process, respectively. After investigating thermodynamic
parameters, it was found that the adsorption process was
endothermic because of positive amount of enthalpy. Fur-
thermore, negative amounts of Gibbs free energy showed the
spontaneity of the adsorption process. Antibacterial studies
revealed that Ni(OH)2 nanoplates showed very good activity
against S. aureus, E. coli and specially B. subtilis bacteria.
Acknowledgment
The financial support from Young Researchers and Elite Club,
Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University is grate-
fully acknowledged (2015).
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data associated with this article can be found,
in the online version, at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psep.
2016.02.011.
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