Green Recycling of Waste Tire Rubber Crumb: Characterization and Water Treatment Applications
4 affiliations
- 1Chemistry Department, College of Science, Jouf University, Sakaka 72341, Saudi Arabia
- 2Department of Chemistry, Al-Qunfudah University College, Umm Al-Qura University, P.O. Box 1109, Al-Qunfudah 21912, Saudi Arabia
- 3Department of Environment, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
- 4Water Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80200, Jeddah 21598, Saudi Arabia
Abstract
Discarded tires are adding to the waste problem that exists worldwide and requires proper recycling methods. Rather than employing chemicals or energy-intensive thermal treatments, which leads to an increase in environmental pollution, in this work, the discarded tires are subjected to mechanical grinding into a fine powder form, resulting in recycled Waste Tire Rubber Crumb (WTRC), then used as an adsorbent for the removal of methylene blue (MB) dye from the polluted water. The use of the adsorbent is eco-friendly and cost-effective, which is beneficial for water treatment. The structural, thermal, and morphological characteristics of WTRC were studied with the use of X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDX), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and zeta potential analysis. It was found that there was an elastic polymer matrix with inorganic additions of ZnO and CaCO3. Zeta potential measurements provided the value −32.5 mV at pH 7.0, demonstrating electrostatic repulsion of the particles and providing solid colloidal stability in aqueous media. In batch tests, WTRC proved to be a good adsorbent of MB, with up to 92.7% removal efficiency within 30 min. under the basic medium (pH 11.0, 1.2 g/50 mL dosage, and initial MB concentration of 5 mg/L ppm). The Langmuir model gave the best fit, with R2 = 0.982, which is more than Freundlich model, R2 = 0.957. The good fit of the Langmuir model indicates that adsorption predominantly occurred as a monolayer on relatively homogeneous adsorption sites on the surface of WTRC. The theoretical monolayer capacity (qmax) is calculated as 0.95 mg/g. It is proved by the surface changes after the adsorption of MB, shown in FTIR and SEM pictures. In general, the raw WTRC can serve as a simple and economic adsorbent for dyes from industry.
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BibTeX
@article{alanazi2026green,
title = {{Green Recycling of Waste Tire Rubber Crumb: Characterization and Water Treatment Applications}},
author = {Ahmed Hamad Alanazi and Tamer H. A. Hasanin and Saad Alrashdi and Amnah Salem Al Zbedy and Fahed A. Aloufi and Riyadh F. Halawani and Amr Mohammad Nassar},
journal = {Polymers},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3390/polym18202492},
url = {https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/18/20/2492},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Green Recycling of Waste Tire Rubber Crumb: Characterization and Water Treatment Applications
AU - Ahmed Hamad Alanazi
AU - Tamer H. A. Hasanin
AU - Saad Alrashdi
AU - Amnah Salem Al Zbedy
AU - Fahed A. Aloufi
AU - Riyadh F. Halawani
AU - Amr Mohammad Nassar
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
JO - Polymers
DO - 10.3390/polym18202492
UR - https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/18/20/2492
AB - Discarded tires are adding to the waste problem that exists worldwide and requires proper recycling methods. Rather than employing chemicals or energy-intensive thermal treatments, which leads to an increase in environmental pollution, in this work, the discarded tires are subjected to mechanical grinding into a fine powder form, resulting in recycled Waste Tire Rubber Crumb (WTRC), then used as an adsorbent for the removal of methylene blue (MB) dye from the polluted water. The use of the adsorbent is eco-friendly and cost-effective, which is beneficial for water treatment. The structural, thermal, and morphological characteristics of WTRC were studied with the use of X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDX), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and zeta potential analysis. It was found that there was an elastic polymer matrix with inorganic additions of ZnO and CaCO3. Zeta potential measurements provided the value −32.5 mV at pH 7.0, demonstrating electrostatic repulsion of the particles and providing solid colloidal stability in aqueous media. In batch tests, WTRC proved to be a good adsorbent of MB, with up to 92.7% removal efficiency within 30 min. under the basic medium (pH 11.0, 1.2 g/50 mL dosage, and initial MB concentration of 5 mg/L ppm). The Langmuir model gave the best fit, with R2 = 0.982, which is more than Freundlich model, R2 = 0.957. The good fit of the Langmuir model indicates that adsorption predominantly occurred as a monolayer on relatively homogeneous adsorption sites on the surface of WTRC. The theoretical monolayer capacity (qmax) is calculated as 0.95 mg/g. It is proved by the surface changes after the adsorption of MB, shown in FTIR and SEM pictures. In general, the raw WTRC can serve as a simple and economic adsorbent for dyes from industry.
SN - 2073-4360
ER -