Effect of Stirring Time on Methylene Blue Adsorption onto Graphene Oxides Surfaces

Abstract

Dyes disposal from the industrial sector into the environment greatly affects the quality of the water. Among various technologies of removing dye pollutants from wastewater, adsorption is one of the most effective and favorable methods. Graphene oxides (GO) has been applied to remove dye pollutants in solution since it has a lot of oxygen-containing groups that can attract and bind pollutants. We study the effect of stirring time on MB adsorption onto GO surfaces. We mixed MB solution with GO dispersion and stirred at varied stirring times. The mixture was kept at room temperature to allow precipitation of the GO-MB mixture and then filtered to separate the precipitate from the residual MB solution. A reduction of MB concentration in the solution was measured using spectroscopy. The experimental results show that MB was adsorbed very fast onto GO surfaces in the first minutes and then the rate of the reduction of MB concentration becomes slower. After the stirring for 60 minutes, almost there is no significant change of the MB concentration that indicated a limit of adsorption capacity of GO.