High‐Efficiency Adsorptive Removal of Phenol from Aqueous Solution Using Natural Red Clay and ZnO Nanoparticles

Abstract Phenol, a highly toxic compound, is a common hazardous chemical. Hence, eco‐friendly and cost‐effective technology for phenol elimination is required. The present study presents a comprehensive study to eliminate phenol compounds via an adsorption technique using ZnO nanoparticles and natural red clay as adsorbents. X‐ray diffraction (XRD), X‐ray fluorescence (XRF), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and Burnauer‐Emmett‐Teller (BET) analyses were conducted for adsorbent surfaces characterization. The impacts of various effects, such as pH and the adsorbent dose on the phenol removal efficiency are described. The results reveal that both ZnO and clay adsorbents removed 99.4 % of phenol at the optimum adsorbent dose of 0.6 g\L and 1 g\L with pH 8 and 2, respectively. The isotherm adsorption data for phenol fitted into Langmuir for the two adsorbents. Yet, the ZnO nanoparticle surface showed a higher capacity (342.72 mg\g) than the natural clay surface (84.01 mg\g). ZnO nanoparticles removed phenol from polluted water at a smaller dose (0.6 g\L) than natural clay (1 g\L). In conclusion, the two adsorbents showed high efficiency in the phenol compound removal.