High-efficient adsorption for versatile adsorbates by elastic reduced graphene oxide/Fe3O4 magnetic aerogels mediated by carbon nanotubes

Alei Dang; Xin Liu; Yujia Wang; Yuhui Liu; Tao Cheng; Amir Zada; Fei Ye; Weibin Deng; Yiting Sun; Tingkai Zhao; Tiehu Li

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.131846

High-efficient adsorption for versatile adsorbates by elastic reduced graphene oxide/Fe₃O₄ magnetic aerogels mediated by carbon nanotubes

J Hazard Mater. 2023 Sep 5:457:131846. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.131846. Epub 2023 Jun 12.

Authors

Alei Dang¹, Xin Liu², Yujia Wang², Yuhui Liu², Tao Cheng³, Amir Zada⁴, Fei Ye², Weibin Deng², Yiting Sun², Tingkai Zhao², Tiehu Li⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, PR China; Shannxi Engineering laboratory for Graphene New Carbon Materials and Applications, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, PR China. Electronic address: dangalei@nwpu.edu.cn.
² School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, PR China; Shannxi Engineering laboratory for Graphene New Carbon Materials and Applications, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, PR China.
³ Shanghai Institute of Spacecraft Equipment, Shanghai 200240, PR China.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, 23200, Pakistan.
⁵ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, PR China; Shannxi Engineering laboratory for Graphene New Carbon Materials and Applications, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, PR China. Electronic address: litiehu@nwpu.edu.cn.

PMID: 37320905
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.131846

Abstract

Fabrication of highly elastic three-dimensional aerogel adsorbents with outstanding adsorption capacities is a long pursuit for the treatment of industrial contaminated water. In this work, a magnetic reduced graphene oxide (rGO)/Fe₃O₄/carbon nanotubes (CNTs) aerogel material was constructed by the electrostatic attraction between the negatively charged GO and positively charged CNTs following a one-pot water bath treatment. The as-synthesized aerogel demonstrated high compressive stress (28.4 kPa) and lower density (24.11 mg/cm³) with exceptional adsorption capacities for versatile adsorbates which are attributed to CNTs and magnetic Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles. The effect of pH, initial concentration of adsorbates (dyes, Cd (ІІ) ions, organic solvents, and pump oil), content of CNTs and cyclic times on the adsorption capacities of the aerogel were investigated in detail. Furthermore, from simulation, the adsorption kinetics, and thermodynamics of the aerogel for adsorbates were more satisfied by endothermic quasi-second-order kinetic model with characteristic physical adsorption. Thus, the optimized rGO/Fe₃O₄/CNTs-10 aerogel adsorbent can be used as a powerful and versatile tool to deal with contaminated industrial or domestic wastewater.

Keywords: Fe(3)O(4); High-efficient adsorption; Magnetic aerogel adsorbent; Reduced graphene oxide; Treatment of wastewater.