Kinetic and equilibrium study of graphene and copper oxides modified nanocomposites for metal ions adsorption from binary metal aqueous solution

Alaa H Ali; Asmaa Bahjat Kareem; Usama A Al-Rawi; Ushna Khalid; Shengfu Zhang; Fatima Zafar; Edisa Papraćanin; Mohammad Rafe Hatshan; Farooq Sher

doi:10.3389/fchem.2023.1279948

Kinetic and equilibrium study of graphene and copper oxides modified nanocomposites for metal ions adsorption from binary metal aqueous solution

Front Chem. 2023 Nov 16:11:1279948. doi: 10.3389/fchem.2023.1279948. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Alaa H Ali¹, Asmaa Bahjat Kareem², Usama A Al-Rawi², Ushna Khalid^{3

4}, Shengfu Zhang^{5

6}, Fatima Zafar^{4

7}, Edisa Papraćanin^{4

8}, Mohammad Rafe Hatshan⁹, Farooq Sher¹⁰

Affiliations

¹ Water and Environmental Directorate, Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Baghdad, Iraq.
² College of Engineering, Al-Nahrain University, Baghdad, Iraq.
³ Department of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom.
⁴ International Society of Engineering Science and Technology, Nottingham, United Kingdom.
⁵ College of Materials Science and Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China.
⁶ Chongqing Key Laboratory of Vanadium-Titanium Metallurgy and Advanced Materials, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China.
⁷ Institute of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.
⁸ Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Technology, University of Tuzla, Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
⁹ Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
¹⁰ Department of Engineering, School of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom.

Abstract

Presently, the main cause of pollution of natural water resources is heavy metal ions. The removal of metal ions such as nickel (Ni²⁺) and cadmium (Cd²⁺) has been given considerable attention due to their health and environmental risks. In this regard, for wastewater treatment containing heavy metal ions, graphene oxide (GO) nanocomposites with metal oxide nanoparticles (NPs) attained significant importance. In this study, graphene oxide stacked with copper oxide nanocomposites (GO/CuO-NCs) were synthesized and characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) analytical procedures. The prepared GO/CuO-NCs were applied for the removal of Ni²⁺ and Cd²⁺ ions from a binary metal ion system in batch and continuous experiments. The obtained results revealed that GO/CuO-NCs exhibited the highest removal efficiencies of Ni²⁺ (89.60% ± 2.12%) and Cd²⁺ (97.10% ± 1.91%) at the optimum values of pH: 8, dose: 0.25 g, contact time: 60 min, and at 50 ppm initial metal ion concentration in a batch study. However, 4 mL/min flow rate, 50 ppm initial concentration, and 2 cm bed height were proved to be the suitable conditions for metal ion adsorption in the column study. The kinetic adsorption data exhibited the best fitting with the pseudo-second-order model. The adsorption isotherm provided the best-fitting data in the Langmuir isotherm model. This study suggested that the GO/CuO nanocomposites have proved to be efficient adsorbents for Ni²⁺ and Cd²⁺ ions from a binary metal system.

Keywords: copper oxide nanocomposites; environmental pollution; graphene oxide; heavy metal ions; kinetics and adsorption; removal efficiency.

Grants and funding

The authors declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The authors are thankful for financial support from the International Society of Engineering Science and Technology (ISEST) UK. The authors are also grateful to the Researchers Supporting Project number (RSP2023R222), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for the financial support.