Preparation and performance of alginate/basil seed mucilage biocomposite for removal of eriochrome black T dye from aqueous solution.

Mucilage extracted from Basil seeds were captured in calcium alginate biobeads. The beads were tested as eco-friendly adsorbents to eriochrome black T dye from aqueous solution. The synthesized biocomposite was characterized by FESEM, EDX, TGA, and FTIR techniques. Batch and continuous experiments were performed for dye adsorption studies using the synthesized biocomposite. The effect of contact time, pH, initial concentration of dye, and amount of adsorbent on dye adsorption capacity, and also kinetics, isotherm, thermodynamics, regeneration, and swelling investigations were performed. The results showed that the adsorption of eriochrome black T follows the pseudo-second-order batch kinetic model, Yoon-Nelson and Thomas dynamic models, and Freundlich isotherm model. The thermodynamic results showed that the dye adsorption process with the synthetic adsorbent is an exothermic spontaneous process.