Optimization for benzeneacetic acid removal from aqueous solution using CaO2 nanoparticles based on Taguchi method

Nanoparticles of CaO2 were synthesized by chemical precipitation method and characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (HR-FESEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), transmittance electron microscopy (TEM) and high-resolution TEM (HRTEM). HR-FESEM, TEM, and HRTEM images confirmed the average size of nanoparticles as 10–40 nm. Furthermore, application of synthesized CaO2 nanoparticles for the removal of benzeneacetic acid was studied by the Taguchi method. The operating parameters are CaO2 nanoparticles dosage (0.008–0.03 g), initial concentration of benzeneacetic acid (6.8–13.47 g/L), and contact time (5–60 min). The result indicates that the CaO2 nanoparticles adsorbent dosage was the most effective factors as compared to initial concentration of benzeneacetic acid and contact time. The optimum parameters were CaO2 nanoparticles adsorbent dosage = 0.03 g, initial concentration of benzeneacetic acid = 6.8 g/L, contact time = 30 min, and the removal efficiency of benzeneacetic acid = 94.49%. ANOVA showed the most significant factors were adsorbent dosage with 93.78% contribution. Regression analysis (R2 = 0.91) showed a good agreement between the experimental and the predicted values. © 2017 Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Centro de Ciencias Aplicadas y Desarrollo Tecnológico. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).