Engineering of Rare Earth Decorated Ni –Al Layered Double Hydroxides for Rapid Detoxification of Food Dye from Aqueous Media

Dye-laden wastewater poses a significant threat to the environment, with fast green dye (FG) emerging as one of the most prevalent contaminants released into aquatic systems. However, the development of novel materials with ultrafast removal performance and consistently high efficiency across a wide pH range remains a major challenge. In this work, a novel and proficient nanoadsorbent was prepared by doping of rare earth element (La) in NiAl-based layered double hydroxide (La/NiAl-LDH). The fabricated nanoabsorbent was validated via different characterization techniques which include P-XRD, FT-IR, TGA, FE-SEM and BET. BET results of La/NiAl-LDH revealed the total surface area of 86.1 m2/g with pore diameter of 2.9 nm. The fabricated adsorbent was evaluated for elimination of obnoxious pollutant FG with ultrafast adsorption of 94% within 10 min. Additionally, the optimised adsorption conditions in terms of catalyst loading, pH of the solution, contact time and initial pollutant concentration were determined through batch experiments. La/NiAl-LDH exhibited superior performance over a broad pH spectrum. The outstanding regenerability and reusability of La/NiAl-LDH showcase fascinating potential for the cost-effective development of adsorbents with long-term suitability and practicability on large scale.