ABSTRACT
A new graphene oxide (GO) nanocomposite that contains chitosan, a biological polymer, combined with a magnetic nanoparticle inorganic material (Fe3O4) was successfully prepared and applied for the adsorption of Pb(II) from aqueous solutions. The structural and morphological properties of the GO/Fe3O4/CS (GFC) nanocomposites were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Influent factors for Pb(II) adsorption, including the contacting time, pH of the working medium, working temperature, and adsorbent dosage on the adsorption efficiency, have been optimized. Under optimized conditions, the adsorption isotherm results indicated that the Langmuir model provided a better description for the adsorption of Pb(II) onto the GFC nanosorbent than the Freundlich model. The maximum adsorption capacity (qmax) was 63.45 mg g-1. The pseudo-second-order kinetic model (R2 = 0.999) was fitted with the experimental results, implying that the adsorption of Pb(II) onto GFC is a chemical process. The thermodynamic studies demonstrated the exothermic nature of the adsorption process. Another advantage of the GFC nanosorbent for Pb(II) removal is its capability to be easily recovered under the use of an external magnet and subsequently regenerated. Our work demonstrated that the removal efficiency was stable after several regeneration cycles (i.e., approximately 12% reduction after four successive adsorption-desorption cycles), implying that the GFC nanosorbent exhibits satisfactory regeneration performance. Therefore, with high removal efficiency, high adsorption capacity, and stable reusability, the GFC nanocomposite is a remarkable application potential adsorbent for the in situ treatment of Pb(II) ion-containing aqueous solutions.
ABSTRACT
In this work, an effective nanocomposite-based adsorbent directed to adsorb cobalt (Co2+) ion was successfully synthesized from graphene oxide (GO), polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), and magnetite (Fe3O4) nanoparticles via a coprecipitation technique. The synthesized GO/PVA/Fe3O4 nanocomposite was applied for Co2+ ion removal with the optimized working conditions including 100 min of contact time, 0.01 g of adsorbent dosage, pH of 5.2, and 50°C of temperature. The investigation of adsorption kinetics showed that the adsorption of Co2+ ion onto the GO/PVA/Fe3O4 nanocomposite followed the pseudo-second-order kinetic model with the rate constant k2 being 0.0026 (g mg-1·min-1). The Langmuir model is suitable to describe the adsorption of Co2+ ion onto the GO/PVA/Fe3O4 nanocomposite with the maximum sorption capacity (q max) reaching 373.37 mg·g-1. The obtained results also indicated that the GO/PVA/Fe3O4 nanocomposite can adsorb/regenerate for at least 5 cycles with a little reduction in removal efficiency. Therefore, we believe that the GO/PVA/Fe3O4 nanocomposite could be used as a potential adsorbent for heavy metal treatment in terms of high adsorption capacity, fast adsorption rate, and recyclability.
