Multi-component adsorption of reactive dyes using iron(lll)-crosslinked alginate-chitosan composite: A statistical approach via RSM.

A novel Fe-Alginate-Chitosan (Fe-Alg-Cs) composite was synthesized and comprehensively characterized using FTIR, SEM-EDX, BET and XRD techniques to confirm structural, morphological and surface properties. The composite was further evaluated for its adsorptive performance toward Reactive Orange 16, Reactive Violet 5 and Reactive Blue 19 dye. Under optimum pH 5.0 and contact time of 60 min, the composite exhibited excellent adsorption capacities of 379.2 mg/g, 345.6 mg/g and 195.2 mg/g respectively, owing to high surface area of 218.1 m2/g. The adsorption followed Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-first-order kinetics, spontaneous, endothermic and driven by entropy. In this novel approach toward treatment of mixture of three dyes, Response Surface Methodology (RSM) using Box- Behnken Design (BBD) was employed to generate experimental dye combinations, enabling a systematic evaluation of individual dye uptake within ternary mixtures. The removal efficiencies of 94.77 %, 96.66 % and 96.63 % respectively for the three dyes, demonstrated its potential for simultaneous multi-dye removal. Sustainability of the process was affirmed through E-factor value of 0.025. Overall, the study establishes Fe-Alg-Cs as an efficient and environmentally sustainable adsorbent for simultaneous removal of multiple reactive dyes from complex wastewater streams.