A highly efficient ZIF ‐8@ AmCs / CTAB composite for removing the toxic dyes and Cr ( VI ) from contaminated water

BACKGROUND Industrial wastewaters are frequently contaminated with hazardous pollutants, including synthetic dyes and heavy metals. Adsorption has emerged as an efficient and cost‐effective method for removing contaminants from wastewater, and advanced porous materials such as zeolitic imidazolate framework‐8 (ZIF‐8) have gained significant attention due to their high surface area. But pure ZIF‐8 does not efficiently interact with different pollutants. To overcome this, ZIF‐8 can be successfully combined with biopolymers and surface‐active molecules. Such hybrid composites provide a promising approach for the simultaneous removal of dyes and heavy metal ions from wastewater. This study focused on the integration of aminated chitosan (AmCs with ZIF‐8, followed by surface modification with cetyle triethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB), resulting in the development of a novel ZIF‐8@AmCs/CTAB composite for the removal of Crystal violet (CV) dye and Cr(VI) metal ions from water. RESULTS Spectroscopic techniques and density functional theory (DFT) were used to characterise the composite. Its high surface area (1350 m 2 /g), hierarchical porosity, and a positively charged surface enable results of maximal uptakes of 782 mgg‐ 1 for CV dye, and 286 mgg −1 for Cr(VI) ions. Using non‐covalent interactions (NCI), hydrogen bonding, and electrostatic interactions from AmCs/CTAB, microporous confinement by ZIF‐8, synergistic interactions achieved removal efficiencies of over 98% for CV and over 70% for Cr(VI). CONCLUSION Our work demonstrates that ZIF‐8@AmCs/CTAB is a promising, cost‐effective composite for treating multi‐pollutant wastewater. The composite shows efficient and stable performance even after five cycles of use and maintains a removal efficiency of more than 92%. and durability over a broad pH range (2–10).