Abstract
Increased urbanization and industrialization have adversely affected surface water sources. A wide range of pollutants exists in surface water bodies, thus making them inappropriate to consume without any treatment. Although numerous water treatment methods have been explored, they are either expensive or produce serious health issues. To address these problems, the current study focuses on exploring the potential of Fe-Ni-Co nanocomposite for the simultaneous removal of six water pollutants (total dissolved solids (TDS), total organic carbon (TOC), turbidity, lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), and chromium (Cr)), through batch adsorption and membrane filtration process. During batch adsorption, Box-Behnken design (BBD) under Response Surface Methodology was studied to optimize adsorption parameters and their interactive impact on pollutant removal. The results indicated the effectual removal of pollutants (around 70% for TDS and TOC, 98.5% for turbidity, and almost complete removal for heavy metals) within 22 min. For membrane filtration studies, M-0.75 (containing 0.75% Fe-Ni-Co loading) exhibited excellent removal of different contaminants (66.1%, 75.4%, 98.7%, 97.2%, 97.7% and 100% for TDS, TOC, turbidity, Pb, Cd and Cr, respectively). Moreover, performance comparison of synthesized nanocomposite adsorbent and fabricated membranes, with the existing literature also exhibited the exceptional ability of Fe-Ni-Co nanocomposite for water purification from multiple contaminants through adsorption and membrane filtration technique and thus, can be a potential candidate for practical application in water treatment.
[Display omitted]