An effective polyhydroquinone/graphene nanocomposite was developed to remove Cu(II) and Zn(II) metal ions in water. The composite nanomaterial was characterized by FT‐IR, SEM, TEM, XRD, Raman spectroscopy, and thermo‐gravimetry. The surface of the material was heterogeneous with 10–20 nm particle size. The adsorption capacity of Cu(II) and Zn(II) metal ions were 40.9 and 24.8 μgg−1, respectively. The sorption followed Langmuir, Freundlich, Tempkin and D−Rs models. The process of adsorption was successfully described by pseudo‐second‐order model, thereby indicating the chemical nature of the main adsorption mechanism. Thus, it can be argued that the adsorption proceeded in a mixed‐diffusion mode, with a significant contribution of a large number of high affinity active sites located on the adsorbent surface. The uptake time was 60 and 15 minutes for Cu(II) and Zn(II) at pH 6.0; indicating fast hydro‐friendly nature and making the method applicable to solve water pollution in real life problems. Therefore, the reported method may be used to remove Cu(II) and Zn(II) metal ions in any water resource.
A novel mesoporous carbon nanostructured
material was prepared
and characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron
microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, thermogravimetry, and X-ray diffractometry.
The material demonstrated high-speed and high-adsorption capacities
of 827.5 and 2484.5 mg g–1 for methyl orange (MO)
and malachite green (MG) dyes in 10 min. The kinetic data were fitted
to pseudo-first- and pseudo-second-order, external and intraparticle
diffusion, and Elovich models, whereas the isotherm data were adjusted
to the Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin, Dubinin–Radushkevich,
and Langmuir–Freundlich isotherms (Sips). It was found that
MO and MG adsorption was limited by chemical interactions and mixed
diffusion. Besides, the physical process was elucidated through free
energy values (E = 2.56 and 0.049 kJ mol–1 for the MO and MG, respectively). Methyl orange adsorption mostly
occurred through ion exchange and electrostatic interactions, and
at lower MO concentrations, through chemical interactions and surface
complexation as well. Malachite green adsorption took place only on
lower-energy sites. Thus, it can be concluded that the adsorbent proposed
herein possessed high-speed and high-adsorption capacity. Therefore,
it can be considered as promising in removing the reported dye pollutants.
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