Enhanced Adsorption Removal of Pb(II) and Cr(III) by Using Nickel Ferrite-Reduced Graphene Oxide Nanocomposite

Abstract

Abstract:The heavy metals, such as Pb(II) and radioisotope Cr(III), in aqueous solutions are toxic even at trace levels and have caused adverse health impacts on human beings. Hence the removal of these heavy metals from the aqueous environment is of the utmost importance to protect biodiversity, hydrosphere ecosystems, and human beings. In this study, the reduced graphene oxide based inverse spinel nickel ferrite (rGONF) nanocomposite has been prepared and was utilized for the removal of Pb(II) and Cr(III) from aqueous solutions. The prepared rGONF has been confirmed by X-ray photoelectron (XPS) and Raman spectroscopy. The surface characteristics of rGONF were measured by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscope (HR-TEM), and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface analysis. The average particle size of rGONF was found to be 32.0 ± 2.0 nm. The surface site density for the specific surface area (Ns) of rGONF was found to be 0.00238 mol·g −1 , which was higher than that of the graphene oxide (GO) and NiFe 2 O 4 , which was expected. The prepared rGONF has been successfully applied for the removal of Pb(II) and Cr(III) by batch mode. The batch adsorption studies concluded that the adsorption of Pb(II) and Cr(III) onto rGONF was rapid and the adsorption percentage was more than 99% for both metal ions. The adsorption isotherm results found that the adsorptive removal of both metal ions onto rGONF occurred through monolayer adsorption on a homogeneous surface of rGONF. The pH-edge adsorption results suggest the adsorption occurs through an inner-sphere surface complex, which is proved by 2-pKa-diffusion model fitting, where the pH-edge adsorption data was well fitted. The adsorption of metal ions increased with increasing temperature. The overall obtained results demonstrated that the rGONF was an effective adsorbent for Pb(II) and Cr(III) removal from wastewater.

Recent Advances in Applications of Hybrid Graphene Materials for Metals Removal from Wastewater

“…Khatamian et al [23] fabricated Fe 3 O 4 /GO/Cu-ZEA via solid state dispersion of Cu-ZEA and Fe 3 O 4 into GO suspension followed by sonication. Lingamdinne et al [30] mixed Hydrazine hydrate, iron and nickel with GO and heated to 120 • C to make rGO-Nickel Ferrite nanocomposite (rGO-NiFerrite NC).…”

“…Solvothermal synthesis was used to composite inorganics with graphene [63]. Adsorbents based on combination of metal oxide and inorganics with graphene were synthesized via hydrothermal routes [30,62,65,66]. No strong correlation between the adsorbent surface area and the adsorption capacity of these composites can be made [53,59,67].…”

“…In a few cases, Fe 3 O 4 /SiO2-GO-PEI was recycled several times without a significant decrease in its adsorption capacity [140]. GONF was reusable effectively for 4 cycles for the adsorption of Cr (III) [88] and rGO-NiFerrite NC could be easily reused and recycled for 4 cycles [30]. The most cycles of regeneration done was reported on GCF to achieve 90% of the capacity after 10 iterations.…”

A New Modified Exfoliated Graphene Oxide for Removal of Copper(ii), Lead(ii) and Nickel(ii) Ions From Aqueous Solutions

“…The concentration of supernatant solutions was determined by titration with (0.01M EDTA) in the presence of suitable indicator; EriochromeBlackT for Pb(II) ion and Murioxide for Cu(II) and Ni(II) ions. The amount of metal ion adsorbed per unit mass of adsorbent and the percentage of removal were calculated using equations 1 and 2 [82].…”

“…The 4-aminoantipyrine-GO adsorbent was compared in terms of adsorption capacity with some recently reported adsorbents. It clears that, in terms of adsorption capacity, the proposed sorbent compares favorably with other adsorbents and its adsorption capacity is high compared to other adsorbents (Table 4) [70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82].…”