Novel Three-Dimensional (3D) Carbon-Metal-Polymeric framework: Efficient removal of Chemical and Biological Contaminants

Abstract

The continuously increasing existence of contaminants such as chemical and biological mainly dye, bacteria, and heavy metals ions in water bodies has increased environmental concern due to their hostile effects on living things. Therefore, it the necessity to be developing newer material that skirmishes such environmental menace. The present works focus on the synthesis of a novel three-dimensional (3D) polymer-metal-carbon (3D-PMC) framework for the exclusion of contaminants (chemical and biological) from water bodies. Initially, polyurethane (PU) foam was treated with nitric acid and used as a scaffold for the development of 3D-PMC. The copper nanosheet (Cu-NS) were deposited on to the functionalized PU foam to produce Cu-NS-PU material. The mechanically exfoliated graphene and mixed with chitosan to produce a graphene-chitosan homogenous suspension. The produce homogenous suspension was deposited Cu-NS-PU for the development of the 3D-PMC framework. The prepared 3D-PMC framework was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analysis (EDX), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and X-rays diffraction (XRD) analysis. The prepared 3D-PMC framework was subjected to various adsorption parameters to assess the sorption ability of the material. The prepared 3D-PMC framework was effectively used for the removal of chromium (Cr) metal ions and Congo-red (CR) dye from the water system. The synthesis of the 3D-PMC framework is simple, novel, cost-effective, and economically viable. Therefore, the prepared 3D-PMC framework has the potential to be used as a filter assembly in water treatment technologies.