Herein, novel composite materials were prepared by intercalating functional pillars, i.e., pentafluorobenzene (PFB) and sodium 2,3,4,5,6-pentafluorobenzoate (PFBS), into graphene oxide (GO) sheets. It led to forming size hives and increased availability of intrinsic area of GO. The synthesized materials (GO-PFB and GO-PFBS) were investigated as adsorbents to eliminate sulfadiazine (SD) from aqueous solutions. The adsorption capacities of GO-PFBS (1002.21 μmol/g) and GO-PFB (564.17 μmol/g) were 6.37 and 3.59 times higher than that of GO (157.21 μmol/g), respectively. The adsorption of SD onto GO-PFBS decreased with increasing solution pH. Density functional theory (DFT) results revealed that the SD adsorption onto the adsorbents was exothermic, and the introduction of the carboxylate groups showed lower binding energy. It was found that hydrophobic interaction fully participates in the adsorption process, and the electrostatic complementation of hydrogen bonding further enhances the SD adsorption. Obtained results showed that intercalating functional rigid molecules as pillars to support GO sheets could improve its adsorption behavior.
Keywords: Density functional theory; Graphene oxide; PPCPs; Rigid molecules; Sulfadiazine.
© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.