A novel approach for the modification of eggshell powder and its application for lead and methylene blue removal

Water pollution is one of the major concerns due to rapid industrialization and urbanization. Wastewater treatment has been an area of great interest for the researchers and among many technologies developed for water treatment, adsorption is the most preferred due to its efficiency and ability of been economical method. In this research, eggshell powder (ESP) is converted into modified eggshell powder (MESP) through chemical and thermal treatment (at 550 °C for 2 h) to use it as an adsorbent to remediate Pb²⁺ and Methylene blue (MB) from water, then it is transferred into modified eggshell powder magnetic composite (MESPMC) with iron coating to resolve the separation challenges and to boost the MESP's adsorption efficiency. FTIR analysis identified the functional groups of ESP, MESP, and MESPMC. XRD analysis reveals a hexagonal crystal structure of calcite in MESP and a combination of the hexagonal crystal structure of calcite and the cubic crystal structure of iron in MESPMC. The Scherrer equation is used to determine the average crystallite sizes of MESP and MESPMC, which are 22.59 nm and 12.15 nm, respectively. The SEM image shows the irregular shape of the MESP and MESPMC particles, as well as the active coating layer in MESPMC. EDX analysis reveals that Ca (20.92 %), O (56.83 %), and Fe (41.03 %), O (48.83 %) are the most abundant elements in MESP and MESPMC respectively. TGA analysis points out that MESPMC outperforms MESP in terms of thermal stability between 600 and 750 °C. MESP and MESPMC were found to be very efficient adsorbent for lead and methylene blue in aqueous medium. At 40 mg/mL adsorbent dosage, ESP, MESP, and MESPMC had the highest yields of Pb²⁺ removal, with 46.996 %, 99.27 %, and 99.78 % respectively at 200 rpm for 60 min with 25 °C. Furthermore, at the 0.5 mg/mL adsorbent dosage, ESP, MESP, and MESPMC have the maximum removal efficiency of methylene blue, with 47.19 %, 90.1 %, and 92 %, respectively at 200 rpm for 30 min with 25 °C. In both cases, the removal efficiency of MESPMC is slightly higher than that of MESP and much higher than that of ESP. Additionally, the results confirm that MESP and MESPMC are potential environment-friendly bio sources to remediate heavy metal (Pb²⁺) and methylene blue dye from water.