Abstract: |
Silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) are attracting great attention for their use in various ap-plications, along with methods for their green and facile production. In this study, we present a
new eco-friendly approach based on the use of Euphorbia balsamifera extract (EBE) in the green
synthesis of silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs), which are then applied as a reducing and stabilizing
agent for the efficient removal of water-based reactive dyes such as bromocresol green (BCG) and
bromophenol blue (BPB). The as-prepared Ag-NPs are quasi-spherical in shape, with an average
diameter of 20–34 nm. Diverse characterization methods, including X-ray diffractometry (XRD),
Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmis-sion electron microscopy (TEM), and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis, were used to ana-lyze these Ag-NPs. The results reveal that water-soluble biomolecules in the Euphorbia balsamifera
extract play an important role in the formation of the Ag-NPs. The removal of toxic dyes was
studied under varied operational parameters such as Ag-NP dosage, initial dye concentration, pH,
stirring time, and temperature. Under the optimum investigated conditions, nearly 99.12% and
97.25% of the bromocresol green and bromophenol blue dyes, respectively, were removed. Both
BCG and BPB adsorption were found to adhere to pseudo-second-order kinetics (r2
2
= 1 and 0.995)
and fit the Langmuir isotherm models well (R1
2
= 0.998 and 0.994), with maximal monolayer ad-sorption capacities of 20.40 and 41.03 mg/g, respectively. Their adsorption processes were observed
to be intrinsically endothermic. The results confirm the potential of the Euphorbia balsamifera extract
as a low-cost, nontoxic, and eco-friendly natural resource for the synthesis of Ag-NPs that may be
useful in the remediation of hazardous dye-contaminated water sources
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