Plant-mediated Cu/Cr/Ni nanoparticle formation strategy for simultaneously separation of the mixed ions from aqueous solution

A facile, low cost, fast, and environmentally benign method was introduced for the biogenic removal of copper, chromium, and nickel, ions using a simultaneous bioreduction-adsorption approach by which the metal ions were bioreduced by the phytochemicals present in the aqueous leaf extract of Eryngium campestre and adsorbed onto ternary Cu/Cr/Ni nanoparticles nuclei. The produced metal nanoparticles were collected by centrifugation for further use. Systematic studies on the effect of different parameters such as reaction time and pH on the removal efficiency (RE) of metal ions and nanoparticle synthesis efficiency (NPSE) revealed that adsorption and nanoparticle synthesis processes complete within only 3.5 min at all of the tested pHs. Maximum RE of 98.92%, 9816%, and 93.39% were obtained for Cu, Cr, and Ni ions at pH 7, respectively. Under the same operational conditions, overall NPSE of 97.77% was obtained for the produced nanoparticles, which was consistent with the average removal efficiency of the three metal ions. Furthermore, the green synthesized ternary nanoparticles were characterized, and the formation of the nanoparticles or the ions removal phenomena was modeled with different kinetic models. The presented approach could be encouraging from both environmental remediation and nanoparticle production points of view. (C) 2018 Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.