Ever
increasing industrialization leads to a rise in contaminated
water resources due to the release of pollutants, such as organic
dyes, into aquatic environments. Carbon nanosorbents, such as graphene,
often exhibit faster uptake, higher capacity, and superior regeneration
than activated carbon, which is the world’s most widely used
adsorbent for point-of-use water purification. However, continuous-flow
adsorption treatments using graphene-based adsorbents are relatively
scarce and are challenged by pressure drop and low flow through efficiency.
Solid–liquid separation after treatment is another great concern
when dealing with carbon nanosorbents. One way to address these issues
consists of impregnating basswood, which is uniquely designed for
fluid transportation, with graphene to promote fast and efficient
adsorption, eliminate the need for dispersing and recovering the nanomaterials,
and limit pressure drop as well as nanoparticle aggregation. The properties
of the modified wood filters to adsorb and desorb methylene blue in
a dynamic system were examined based on a central composite design.
Results show that graphene was well-dispersed and immobilized on the
wood vessel sidewalls by a vacuum impregnation process. The Yan model
provided a good fit to the experimental breakthrough curves, and high
uptake capacities up to 46 mg/g were obtained even at relatively low
feed concentration. Spent filters were recovered by solvent exchange
and reused for five sorption cycles with regeneration efficiency >80%.
The present study has important implications for the safe and efficient
utilization of nanosorbents in environmental remediation and separation
applications.
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