Adsorption of direct black-38 azo dye on p-tert-butylcalix[6]arene immobilized material

The present study demonstrates the adsorption of the direct black-38 (DB-38) azo dye on potential and newly synthesized p-tert-butylcalix[6]arene based silica resin (4). Resin 4 was synthesized via the modification of pure silica 1 as 2 followed by the immobilization of p-tert-butylcalix[6]arene (3) onto modified silica (2). It was characterized by using different analytical techniques such as FT-IR, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA). The effect of adsorbent dosage, pH and the electrolyte effect on the removal of the DB-38 azo dye were evaluated through batch wise adsorption experiments. Maximum adsorption of 91% was achieved at pH 9.0. The textile wastewater samples were used to ensure the field applicability of the newly synthesized adsorbent 4 for the treatment of dye contaminated effluents. All results regarding the removal of the DB-38 azo dye from the aqueous environment prop up resin 4 as an effective adsorbent and it was found that resin 4 has high adsorption efficiency toward the DB-38 azo dye at a wide range of pH as compared to 1 and 2.