ECO-FRIENDLY BIONANOCOMPOSITE BASED ON BIOSYNTHESIZED POLY(3-HYDROXYBUTYRATE-CO-3-HYDROXYVALERATE) REINFORCED WITH Ni-CuO NANOPARTICLES FOR REMOVAL OF BRILLIANT GREEN

Ni-doped Copper oxide (Ni-CuO) nanoparticles have been synthesized from Arabic Gum. Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co- 3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) polyester was biosynthesized by the microorganism Haloferax mediterranei utilizing date waste as carbon source. The produced Ni-doped copper oxide (Ni-CuO) nanoparticles have been incorporated with different percentages into the PHBV matrix. The produced bionanocomposites were achieved with different percentages of the nanoparticles: 1%, 3%, 5% and 10%, and were referred to as PHBV/Ni-CuO(1,3,5,10%). FTIR, TGA, XRD, SEM and EDX techniques have been used to study and characterize the synthesized bionanocoposites. In addition, the prepared nanocomposites were studied for their efficiency as solid phase adsorbents for Brilliant Green (B.G.) dye from water resources under different conditions. The prepared nanocomposites were found to be very efficient and promising solid phase adsorbent materials to treat water samples for the purpose of dye removal. The percentage of the removed dye increased from 45.6% to 97.7% as the PHBV/Ni-CuO(10%) nanocomposite amount increased from 10 mg to 70 mg per 25 mL of water sample. The dye removal percentage reached an equilibrium in 90 min. Natural water samples from three different sources have been tested against the Ni-CuO/PHBV(3%) nanocomposite as solid adsorbent for the B.G. removal, and the results showed >90% dye removal in all cases under the optimum experimental conditions.