Synthesis and application potential of Graphene and Graphene Oxide nano composite for treatment of dyes and Aromatic Hydrocarbons

Abstract

In twenty first century water became polluted in many ways with growing industrialization and urbanization. Dyes and poly aromatic hydrocarbons are contaminated effluents, discharged by the mainly textile and petrochemical industries. In this research the potential of removing dye and poly aromatic hydrocarbons by adsorption process has been explored. Among the various adsorbents garphene oxide and reduce graphene oxide were selected based on chemical structure. gaphene oxide and reduced graphene oxide was prepared by modified Hummers method. Graphene oxide nano composite has been prepared and used to analyze the removal efficiency of dyes and poly aromatic hydro carbons. The adsorbents are characterized by XRD, FTIR, SEM, AFM and Raman analysis. For instance only 0.1 g of GONC removes around 90% of dye in 100 ml of solution containing 50 mg/l of dye. Among PAH’s compounds naphthalene and phenol have been used, around 60 % of PAH molecules have been removed in 100 ml solution containing 10 mg/l of PAH. The removal of dye and PAH are pH dependent. Langmuir isotherms model was best fitted the adsorption data for all the cases. Reaction kinetics flowed by pseudo second order kinetic model for dye and PAH. Thermodynamic study reveals that the process is spontaneous and physisorption in nature with high randomness between solid solute interface. RSM analysis shows that process better correlate the experimental data with statistical model. Column study revealed that breakthrough time increased with the increased of bed height and decreased with the increased flow rate and influent adsorbate concentration. Toxicological analysis was carred out to measure root-shoot length of Cicer arietinum. Thermodynamic study shows that only physical adsorption take place during this process, so mainly hydrogen bonds, van der Wall bonds, London separation force were acted between adsorbate and adsorbent (GONC) molecules. Keywords: Reduce graphene oxide, graphene oxide, graphene oxide nano composite, adsorption.