Synthesis and characterization of oligomers contain phenylhydrazyne unit via oxidative polycondensation: Adsorption studies, kinetic modeling and validation methods

In this study, 4-((2-phenylhydrazono)methyl)benzene-1,2-diol (4-PHBD) Schiff base was obtained from the condensation reaction between 3,4-dihydroxybenzaldehyde (3,4-DHBA) and phenylhydrazine (PH). The obtained Schiff base (4-PHBD) was polymerized using H2O2, NaOCl, and O2 oxidants in an aqueous basic medium (10 % KOH) and 4-PHBD was converted to o-(4-PHBD)-P (by H2O2 oxidant), o-(4-PHBD)-H (by NaOCl oxidant) and o-(4-PHBD)-O (by O2 oxidant). The structures of Schiff base and oligomers were characterized with FT-IR, NMR, SEM, TGA, UV-Vis, CV and GPC measurements. The Cyclic Voltammetry and UV-Vis measurements were used to ascertain the compounds' optical (Eg) and electrochemical (Eg’) band gaps, respectively. The Eg values of o-(4-PHBD)-P, o-(4-PHBD)-O and o-(4-PHBD)-H were found be 2.99, 2.63 and 3.26 eV, respectively. o-(4-PHBD)-O was used as an adsorbent in the removal of methylene green (MG) from an aqueous solution. The obtained data were applied to pseudo-first order and pseudo-second order kinetic models. It was determined that the adsorption process obeyed the pseudo first order kinetic model. The kinetic model was validated with R2, RMSE, SSE, SD, Δqe (%), MSE and ARE validation methods. The activation energy (Ea) was calculated as 7.31 kJ mol−1 using the Arrhenius equation. It was determined that the adsorption of MG on o-(4-PHBD)-O was physical adsorption.