Preferential water remediation of cationic dyes using structurally engineered novel organoselenium based self-assembled constructs

Selenide derivatives of the imidazo[1,2-a]pyridyl heterocyclic system have been investigated for their potential to generate novel and diverse self-assembled architectures. The effect of structural modification as well as insertion of selenium metal into imidazo pyridyl heterocyclic compounds for generating self-assembled motifs has been thoroughly investigated using optical microscopy, SEM, AFM, TGA and XRD studies. The self-assembled fibrils of organoselenium derivative IPSeX1 (X1 = phenyl) were found to interact selectively with cationic dyes crystal violet (CV) and methylene blue (MB), with relatively higher adsorption capacity for CV (767.08 mg g(-1)) compared to already employed materials. The equilibrium adsorption and kinetic data fitted well with the Freundlich adsorption isotherm and pseudo first order kinetics model respectively for CV. The self-assembled fibrils showed much higher adsorption under alkaline conditions, can be reused up to five times and are feasible for usage in real samples. The present study opens a pioneering area where self-assembled motifs generated from organoselenium heterocyclic derivatives can be generated and employed as dye adsorbents for water remediation with great potential.