Novel composite material for selective copper(II) detection and removal from aqueous media

The mesoporous composite material (MeCM) was fabricated using functional organic ligand of 2-methyl-8-quinolinol immobilization onto the porous silica by direct conjugation and employed as an effective material for the detection and removal of copper (Cu(II)) ion from aqueous media. The material characterization was evaluated in detail to understand the material morphology for complexation during the Cu(II) ion capturing. The variation of pH solution, reaction time, detection limit, initial Cu(II) concentration and competing ion parameters were measured systematically. The MeCM was sensitively evolved the color upon addition of Cu(II) ion even in the low concentration level. The detection limit was 0.33 μg/L. The solution pH was highly influenced both in the detection and adsorption operation. However, the neutral pH 7.0 was effective for efficient detection and removal of Cu(II) ion. The application of MeCM was significantly enhanced the removal capacity as well as selectivity. The Langmuir isotherm model was applied to validate the adsorption isotherms as the MeCM exhibited the homogeneous ordered frameworks. The adsorption capacity was 197.15 mg/g as expected due to the high surface area of MeCM even after ligand immobilization onto the porous silica. The competing ion was not affected significantly during the Cu(II) ion detection and removal because of the high affinity Cu(II) ion to MeCM at this optimum experimental protocol. Moreover, the Cu(II) ion was desorbed from the MeCM with using 0.20 M HCl and able to reuse in several cycles without deterioration in its original performances. Therefore, the designing method with experimental condition makes the MeCM to adopt for various environmental applications dealing with monitoring and separation processes.