Decorated graphene with aluminum fumarate metal organic framework as a superior non-toxic agent for efficient removal of Congo Red dye from wastewater

Abstract

Nowadays, disposal of highly stable toxic dyes into the ecosystem and water sources has become a great concern for our health, while many attempts were conducted to remove these kinds of pollutants from the ecosystem through practical scientific protocols. Herein, for the first time, we decorated the graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) with the highly porous aluminum fumarate (AlF) metal organic framework (AlF MOF) toward efficient and high yield removal of the Congo Red (CR) dye ((3,3′-([1,1′-biphenyl]z-4,4′-diyl)bis(4-aminonaphthalene-1-sulfonic acid)) as a severely toxic and even carcinogenic substance from aqueous media. In this case, developed absorbers including AlF, AlF-GO and AlF-rGO were well-characterized through diverse analyses that confirmed their successful synthesis and also superior specific surface area and porosity, where their respective BET surface areas found to be 973.39, 917.79 and 951.88 m2. g−1. Additionally, outcome of further analyses showed that the experimental data are well fitted with Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic model which show that the absorption process occur through chemisorption via uniform energetic absorption sites. Further evaluations showed that the AlF and its derived composites with GO and rGO can completely remove the CR dye at optimum conditions (more than 99% yield) and reach to the absorption capacity of about 93.45, 102.04 and 178.57 mg.g−1 for concentrations between 1–40 μg.mL−1 at optimum conditions, which highlight their superior sensitivity. Additionally, for the first time it was also reported that the AlF composite with GO is fully non-toxic.