Graphene oxide modified waste newspaper for removal of heavy metal ions and its application in industrial wastewater

Abstract

Waste newspapers as absorbents to remove contaminant are limit to the extracting fibers from the newspaper at present, which lead to a complicated preparation and a difficult separation at the end of adsorption. In this study, we reported a simple, effective and renewable adsorption material assembled with waste newspaper and graphene oxide (GO). The adsorption and durability of the GO/paper have been evaluated using heavy metal ions solution and industrial effluent from the bleaching plant of paper industry, and the adsorption isotherm and kinetics are also valuated. The results indicate that the maximum adsorption capacities of GO/paper are 75.41 mg/g, 29.04 mg/g and 31.35 mg/g for Pb2+, Ni2+, and Cd2+, respectively, and the regeneration efficiency of the adsorbent to each ion is reduced by less than 10% within three testing cycles. Moreover, the GO/paper has a superior performance of removing the residual lignin and Chemical Oxygen Demand of the bleaching effluent, the adsorption of which are 64.4 mg/g and 225.7 mg/g, respectively. All these results highlight that the GO/paper as an environment-friendly, renewable and low-cost material possess an excellent adsorption capacity for both heavy metal ions and industrial wastewater.