Research Publications
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Publication Open Access Development of Silica-Copper Nanocomposite for Water Purification(SLIIT, 2022-02-11) Angappan, S; Karunaratne, M; Thambiliyagodage, CWater pollution is one of the serious concerns across the world at the moment. Industrial wastewater significantly contributes to the negative impacts caused by water pollution. Textile industries discharge large amounts of effluents into water streams with little or no treatment of the discharge because wastewater treatment is an expensive process. Thus, there exists a need for a cheap and effective way to treat textile effluent that contains dyes before being discharged. A high purity silica-based Nano-adsorbent was synthesized by using rice husk as the commercially available main cheap precursor. Copper-loaded silica nanoparticles were successfully functionalized with 3-aminopropyl triethoxysilane (APTES) via the sol-gel pathway to enhance the adsorption performance of organic dyes from textile effluent. The performance of produced Nano-adsorbent was evaluated by using methylene blue as waste adsorbate. As synthesized nanomaterial was characterized by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, the XRD results confirmed the presence of silicon dioxide (SiO2) and paramelaconite (Cu4O3) as predicted. The FTIR confirmed the presence of Si–O stretching, N-H bending, C–H stretching, Cu–O stretching and O–H bending vibrations thereby suggesting the presence of SiO2, NH2 groups, CH2, Cu4O3 and physisorbed H2O. The optimum conditions for pH and adsorbent dosage were successfully evaluated for the adsorption process. The optimum pH at which the nanomaterial performed best was at pH 4. The optimum mass of the adsorbent that gave maximum adsorption performance was 20 mg. Kinetic studies revealed that the experimented data was in better correlation with pseudo-second-order kinetics. The outcome of this project would be of interest to textile industries looking for a cheap and effective way to treat textile wastewaterPublication Open Access Synthesis of mesoporous silica nanoparticles derived from rice husk and surface-controlled amine functionalization for efficient adsorption of methylene blue from aqueous solution(Elsevier, 2021-01-01) Usgodaarachchi, L; Thambiliyagodage, C. J; Wijesekera, R; Bakker, M. GMesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN) were synthesized using rice husk (RH) as the raw material via sol-gel pathway using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as the structure directing agent. Silica nanoparticles were successfully functionalized with 3-aminopropyl triethoxysilane (APTES) via in-situ and post functionalization methods. Synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by X-Ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area analysis. The amorphous silica nanoparticles were of 50–60 nm in diameter with a surface area of 150 m2/g, pore volume of 0.237 cm3/g and average pore size of 3.62 nm. Morphology and textural parameters were changed upon functionalization. The equilibrium adsorption capacity of MSN-A (4.94 mg/g) to adsorb 10 mg/L methylene blue (MB), was higher than in amine functionalized silica nanoparticles. The influence of experimental factors such as pH, adsorbent dosage, and initial MB concentration on adsorption of MB to MSN-A were studied. The equilibrium data for MB adsorption on mesoporous silica nanoparticles well fitted to Langmuir equation, with a maximum monolayer capacity of 19.26 mg/g. The adsorption of MB could be best described by the pseudo-second order model. The results indicate that MSN-A is a potential mesoporous material fabricated by cheap natural resources to remove MB from aqueous solutions.Publication Embargo Synthesis of Amine Functionalized Silica- Cu4O3 Adsorbent from Rice Husk for Efficient Removal of Crystal Violet from Aqueous Solution(Faculty of Humanities and Sciences,SLIIT, 2021-09-25) Usgodaarachchi, L.; Thambiliyagodage, C; Angappan, SSilica based Nano adsorbent (SCN) synthesized using rice husk as the raw material via sol- gel pathway. Silica nanoparticles were successfully functionalized with 3-aminopropyl triethoxysilane (APTES) via in-situ functionalization method. Synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by XRD and FT-IR. The equilibrium adsorption capacity of 0.02g of SCN to adsorb 10 mg/L crystal violet (CV) was 20.09 mg/g. The influence of pH, adsorbent dosage, and initial CV concentration on adsorption of CV to SCN were studied. The equilibrium data for CV adsorption on SCN well fitted to Freundlich model, with a Freundlich adsorption capacity of 8.23 mg g-1. The adsorption of CV could be best described by the pseudosecond order model with 0.99 linier regression coefficient.