Abstract
Hybrid carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are grown on biomass powder-activated carbon (bio-PAC) by loading iron nanoparticles (Fe) as catalyst templates using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and using acetylene as carbon source, under specific conditions as reaction temperature, time, and gas ratio that are 550 °C, 47 min, and 1, respectively. Specifications of hybrid CNTs were analyzed and characterized using field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), transmission electron microscopic (TEM), Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), surface area Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), and zeta potential. The results revealed the high quality and unique morphologies of hybrid CNTs. Furthermore, removal and capacity of Al3+ were optimized by response surface methodology (RSM). However, the results revealed that the pseudo-second-order model well represented adsorption kinetic data, while the isotherm data were effectively fitted using a Freundlich model. The maximum adsorption capacity was 347.88 mg/g. It could be concluded that synthesized hybrid CNTs are a new cost-effective and promising adsorbent for removing Al3+ ion from wastewater.
Highlights
The environmental quality has been deteriorating on a global scale every day because of the rapid development of industrialization and increasing infrastructure
The present study investigated the impact of synthesized hybrid carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on biomass-powder-activated carbon (PAC)
The results showed that hybrid CNTs could separate from water because of hydrophobicity
Summary
The environmental quality has been deteriorating on a global scale every day because of the rapid development of industrialization and increasing infrastructure. To remove toxic metal pollution from wastewater, several conventional methods have been implemented Those metals can be chemically precipitated with hydroxides, chelating precipitation sulfides, membrane filtration, coagulation and flocculation, bioadsorbents, adsorption by porous carbon materials, electrodialysis, ion exchange, flotation, and electrochemical treatments, such as electrochemical oxidation, electrocoagulation/electrocoagulation flotation, electrodialysis, and photoelectrochemical, sonoelectrochemical, and electrochemical reduction [5,6,7,8,9]. One of the interesting nanomaterials is carbon nanotubes (CNTs), which are been widely studied and evaluated for water treatment because of their exceptional properties, including nanotubes’ structure, easy separation, catalytic potential, high reactivity, small size, and large surface area, which can be effective adsorbents for several metals.
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