Facile sol-gel synthesis of calcium oxide nanoparticles for effective removal of Ni(II) from aqueous solution

In this study, nanoparticles of calcium oxide (CaO-NPs) were prepared via the sol-gel technique and introduced as a highly efficient adsorbent for removing Ni(II) from aqueous media. The prepared adsorbent was characterised via SEM, TEM, FTIR, XRD, and TGA. The pH_zpc and surface area were also determined. XRD pattern exposed a polycrystalline nature of the adsorbent. SEM analysis showed that the adsorbent possesses enhanced surface porosity highlighting its potential capacity for adsorption. TEM analysis confirmed the crystallisation of adsorbent with a simple cubic structure. The FTIR spectrum displayed that the adsorbent surface comprises mostly (–OH and C=O) groups which are principally accountable for the adsorption of Ni(II). A series of batch adsorption experiments were done to study the effect of several parameters as pH, adsorbent dose, time of contact, initial concentration of adsorbate, temperature, ionic strength, and presence of interfering ions on the removal of Ni(II) ions from aqueous solutions using CaO-NPs. Maximum removal was obtained with 200 mg of adsorbent after 90 min contact time at pH 7 and 25°C as optimal conditions. The adsorption process was fitted well with Langmuir isotherm model and pseudo-second-order kinetic model, showing that the adsorption of Ni(II) ions on CaO-NPs was monolayer coverage with 166.67 mg/g capacity of adsorption. Thermodynamic studies revealed a spontaneous and endothermic adsorption process. The regeneration study using Na₂EDTA indicated that the prepared adsorbent has a high renewal potential without notable loss in its performance. Moreover, the prepared adsorbent proved its good applicability and performance by successful application of the suggested procedure for the recovery of Ni(II) added to some real water samples. Accordingly, the obtained results showed that CaO-NPs can rapidly and efficiently remove Ni(II) from aqueous solutions. Also, CaO-NPs adsorbent is eco-friendly, easy to produce, cost-effective, non-toxic, and with good adsorption-desorption capacity. Therefore, this study will contribute to ecological cleaning and wastewater treatment.