Modeling and optimization of ultrasound-assisted high performance adsorption of Basic Fuchsin by starch-capped zinc selenide nanoparticles/AC as a novel composite using response surface methodology.

In this study, the starch-capped zinc selenide nanoparticles loaded on activated carbon (ST-Zn-Se-NPs-AC) composite was fabricated, and then it was used for removing Basic Fuchsin (BF) dye from aqueous solution. The ST-Zn-Se-NPs-AC composite was characterized by FE-SEM, UV-Vis, EDS, and XRD techniques. The removal percentage dependence to different variables such as initial BF concentration, pH, dosage of adsorbent, and time of sonication was investigated by Central Composite Design (CCD) under Response Surface Methodology (RSM). The quadratic model between the independent and dependent variables was predicted. A good agreement between the experimental and predicted data was achieved by the predicted model that showed the performance of the predicted model for predicting of real optimum points, and it was successfully employed to remove BF from aqueous media. The maximum removal percentage of 99.34% was obtained by the predicted model under the optimum conditions (15 mg L-1 of initial BF concentration, pH of 7.0, 12 mg of ST-Zn-Se-NPs-AC, and 6 min of sonication time), which was very close to the experimental value (99.00%). Moreover, the data were efficiently fitted by Langmuir model, and the saturation adsorption capacity (Qmax) at 25 °C for BF was discovered to be 222.72 mg g-1.