Hydrothermal synthesis of graphene oxide/multiwalled carbon nanotube/FeO ternary nanocomposite for removal of Cu (II) and methylene blue.

Long, Zhihang; Zhan, Yingqing; Li, Fei; Wan, Xinyi; He, Yi; Hou, Chunyan; Hu, Hai

In this work, highly activated graphene oxide/multiwalled carbon nanotube/FeO ternary nanocomposite adsorbent was prepared from a simple hydrothermal route by using ferrous sulfate as precursor. For this purpose, the graphene oxide/multiwalled carbon nanotube architectures were formed through the π-π attractions between them, followed by attaching FeO nanoparticles onto their surface. The structure and composition of as-prepared ternary nanocomposite were characterized by XRD, FTIR, XPS, SEM, TEM, Raman, TGA, and BET. It was found that the resultant porous graphene oxide/multiwalled carbon nanotube/FeO ternary nanocomposite with large surface area could effectively prevent the π-π stacking interactions between graphene oxide nanosheets and greatly improve sorption sites on the surfaces. Thus, owing to the unique ternary nanocomposite architecture and synergistic effect among various components, as-prepared ternary nanocomposite exhibited high separation efficiency when they were used to remove the Cu (II) and methylene blue from aqueous solutions. Furthermore, the adsorption isotherms of ternary nanocomposite structures for Cu (II) and methylene blue removal fitted the Langmuir isotherm model. This work demonstrated that the graphene oxide/multiwalled carbon nanotube/FeO ternary nanocomposite was promising as an efficient adsorbent for heavy metal ions and organic dye removal from wastewater in low concentration.

HYDROTHERMAL synthesis; GRAPHENE oxide; MULTIWALLED carbon nanotubes; FERRIC oxide; NANOCOMPOSITE materials; METHYLENE blue; COPPER compounds

Journal of Nanoparticle Research, 2017, Vol 19, Issue 9, p1

1388-0764

Academic Journal

10.1007/s11051-017-4014-4