The adsorption of malachite green (MG) as a cationic dye onto functionalized multi walled carbon nanotubes

Abstract

Synthetic dyes are widely used by several industries to color their products. The discharge of colored wastewater into the hydrosphere causes serious environmental problems. We used functionalized multi wall carbon nanotubes as an adsorbent for the adsorption of cationic dye, malachite green, from aqueous solution. Based on information provided by the Iranian Research Institute of Petroleum Industry, carbon nanotubes are produced using a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique. These as-received MWCNTs were functionalized by acid treatment. The remaining dye concentration was read by UV-visible absorption spectroscopy at maximum adsorption wavelength. The effect of different operational parameters such as contact time, pH of solution, adsorbent dose and initial dye concentration were studied. The results showed that by increasing of contact time, pH and adsorbent dose the removal of dye increased, but by increasing initial dye concentration, the removal efficiency decreased. Adsorption isotherms and kinetics behavior of f-MWCNTs for removal of malachite green was analyzed, and fitted to various existing models. The experimental data were well correlated with the Langmuir isotherm with a maximum adsorption capacity (q m ) and regression coefficient (R2) of 142.85 mg/g and 0.997, respectively. The results of this study indicate that functionalized multi wall carbon nanotubes can be used as an effective adsorbent for the removal of dyes.