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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Water and Wastewater Management
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2025.1560070
Nanocellulose Based Titanium Dioxide Nanocomposites for the Wastewater Treatment of Textile Industry
Provisionally accepted
Shahid Ali Khan 1
Muhammad Tariq Rafiq 1*
Ying Feng 2
Dr. HAYSSAM M. Ali 3
Waleed A A Alsakkaf 3 Farzana Altaf 4
Attarad Ali 5 Temoor Ahmed 2
Rukhsanda Aziz 1*- 1 International Islamic University, Islamabad, Islamabad, Pakistan
- 2 Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China
- 3 King Saud University, Riyadh, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
- 4 Environmental Protection Agency, Islamabad, Pakistan, Islamabad, Pakistan
- 5 University of Baltistan, Skardu, Skardu, Gilgit Baltistan, Pakistan
Nanocellulose based titanium dioxide nanocomposite (NC/TiO2) with enhanced adsorption and photocatalytic properties is a favorable material for treating wastewater of textile industry. The NCTiO2 nanocomposite was fabricated by a two-step hydrothermal process and characterized through X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared-spectroscopy (FT-IR), Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), and Ultraviolet-visible absorption spectroscopy (UV-Vis Absorption Spectroscopy) techniques.The maximum percentage removal efficiencies under optimum experimental conditions for total dissolved solids (TDS), total salts, turbidity, chemical oxygen demand (COD), and color in textile industry A and textile industry B were observed to be 49.16% & 65.05%, 74.98% & 80.64%, 97.48% & 100%, 87.18% & 92.03%, and 75.58% & 93.86%, respectively. The maximum photocatalytic degradation efficiencies for the removal of turbidity, COD and color in textile industry A and textile industry B were observed to be 96.21% & 99.66%, 85.82% & 87.43%, and 76.60% & 95.82%, respectively. Due to low initial concentration values of treatment parameters, the adsorption and photocatalytic removal efficiencies of textile industry B were higher as compared to textile industry A. The current study suggests that NC/TiO2 has the potential to be used as a highly efficient adsorbent and photocatalyst for removing pollutants from wastewater.
Keywords: nanocellulose, titanium dioxide, nanocomposite, wastewater, Adsorption, Photocatalytic
Received: 13 Jan 2025; Accepted: 10 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Khan, Rafiq, Feng, Ali, Alsakkaf, Altaf, Ali, Ahmed and Aziz. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Muhammad Tariq Rafiq, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Islamabad, Pakistan
Rukhsanda Aziz, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Islamabad, Pakistan
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.