Expired Medicine-Derived Wonder Scavenger for The Removal of Harmful Dyes With No Hazardous Footprint
摘要
Exorbitant dye contamination in water augments health quandaries in living beings. Besides, expired medicines induce secondary hazards owing to mismanaged, rampant disposal in environments. To quench the dual problem, the waste-to-best protocol was exercised maneuvering the conversion of an expired medicine ‘Oflofrenz-OZ’ to activated carbon (OAC) followed by extraordinary ultrafast scavenging of recalcitrant bromothymol blue (BTB), and crocein orange (CO) from water. The material is well characterized using powder XRD, FESEM-EDX, pHZPC, and BET surface area. FESEM exhibits a highly porous morphology, evenly decorated, thereby offering a favorable dye-hosting platform. Outstanding adsorption capacities for BTB and CO (362.318 and 1008.089 mg/g) are powered by ultrafast kinetics, obeying the Langmuir monolayer model (R2 = 0.999). Mild alkali-assisted regeneration revives the material by up to 50%, enabling three-cycle reuse. OAC performs well with simulated wastewater from tube-well, tap, and reverse osmosis systems, which synergistically advocates field applicability. The long-hankered disposal problem of dye-loaded spent material has been addressed by converting it to a second-generation carbon-based adsorbent with an 80% yield. Compared with analogous materials, the present material is a clear winner, thanks to its extraordinary adsorption efficacy, economic viability, and zero footprints.