Development of Efficient and Recyclable ZnO-CuO/g-C3N4 Nanocomposite for Enhanced Adsorption of Arsenic from Wastewater

Qudrat Ullah Khan; Nabila Begum; Zia Ur Rehman; Afaq Ullah Khan; Kamran Tahir; El Sayed M Tag El Din; Asma A Alothman; Mohamed A Habila; Dahai Liu; Patrizia Bocchetta; Muhammad Sufyan Javed

doi:10.3390/nano12223984

Development of Efficient and Recyclable ZnO-CuO/g-C₃N₄ Nanocomposite for Enhanced Adsorption of Arsenic from Wastewater

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2022 Nov 12;12(22):3984. doi: 10.3390/nano12223984.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Greater Bay Area Institute of Precision Medicine (Guangzhou), Fudan University, Nansha District, Guangzhou 511458, China.
² Zhongshan-Fudan Joint Innovation Center, Zhongshan 528437, China.
³ School of Medicine, Foshan University, Foshan 528000, China.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, The University of Haripur, Haripur 22620, Pakistan.
⁵ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University, 301 Xuefu Road, Zhenjiang 212013, China.
⁶ Institute of Chemical Sciences, Gomal University Dera Ismail Khan, Dera Ismail Khan 29220, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
⁷ Electrical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering & Technology, Future University in Egypt, New Cairo 11835, Egypt.
⁸ Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
⁹ Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Innovazione, Università del Salento, via Monteroni, 73100 Lecce, Italy.
¹⁰ School of Physical Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China.

Abstract

Arsenic (III) is a toxic contaminant in water bodies, especially in drinking water reservoirs, and it is a great challenge to remove it from wastewater. For the successful extraction of arsenic (III), a nanocomposite material (ZnO-CuO/g-C₃N₄) has been synthesized by using the solution method. The large surface area and plenty of hydroxyl groups on the nanocomposite surface offer an ideal platform for the adsorption of arsenic (III) from water. Specifically, the reduction process involves a transformation from arsenic (III) to arsenic (V), which is favorable for the attachment to the -OH group. The modified surface and purity of the nanocomposite were characterized by SEM, EDX, XRD, FT-IR, HRTEM, and BET models. Furthermore, the impact of various aspects (temperatures, pH of the medium, the concentration of adsorbing materials) on adsorption capacity has been studied. The prepared sample displays the maximum adsorption capacity of arsenic (III) to be 98% at pH ~ 3 of the medium. Notably, the adsorption mechanism of arsenic species on the surface of ZnO-CuO/g-C₃N₄ nanocomposite at different pH values was explained by surface complexation and structural variations. Moreover, the recycling experiment and reusability of the adsorbent indicate that a synthesized nanocomposite has much better adsorption efficiency than other adsorbents. It is concluded that the ZnO-CuO/g-C₃N₄ nanocomposite can be a potential candidate for the enhanced removal of arsenic from water reservoirs.

Keywords: ZnO–CuO/g–C3N4 nanocomposite; adsorption; arsenic removal; kinetic studies; solution combustion.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by research grants from the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (Grant 17ZR1402600), the Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Action Plan, Belt & Road Young Scientist Program (Grant No. 19160745500), the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province of China (Grant No. 2022A1515011368), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 81870307, 82270413) and The Key Projects of Department of Education of Guangdong Province of China (Grant No. 2022ZDZX2057, 2022ZXKC474). This work was funded by the Researchers Supporting Project Number (RSP-2021/243), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.