Surface Water Remediation Using Zinc Oxide/Plantain Peelings Nanoparticles within Ogoni Creek of Niger Delta, Nigeria

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of zinc oxide/plantain peelings nanoparticles for oil spill contaminated surface water remediation within Ogoni creek of Niger Delta, Nigeria. The nanoparticles were characterized using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and X-ray Powder diffraction (XRD), taking in cognizance of the physicochemical parameters prior and after analysis so as to ascertain efficacy of the remediation method. SEM revealed the image of an irregular morphology and a porous surface which can enable oil entrance into the internal parts of the nano materials for easy sorption purposes. The XRD revealed a hexagonal wurtzite structure with a particle size of 22nm. The synthesized nanoparticles exhibited adsorption properties when used on the surface water samples showing percentage remediation ranging between 2.38 - 8.56% (SWa); 2.16 - 8.83% (SWb); and 53.33-77.62% (SWc). The results showed that the plantain peelings/ZnONPs had good efficacy for oil spill removal in the contaminated surface water samples. Kinetics of remediation gave a linear graph and took a pseudo-first order reaction with R² values close to 1. (R² = 0.978, 0.985 and 0.963). ANOVA revealed that there is a significant difference (p<0.05) at 95% confidence limit in the diminishing trend of the surface water contaminated samples. It is therefore recommended that nano materials harnessed from biomass materials in conjunction with other green synthesis should be employed for water remediation.

Keywords: Adsorption, Nanoparticles, Physicochemical, Remediation, Surface water