GO-SWCNT Buckypapers as an Enhanced Technology for Water Decontamination from Lead

Abstract

Water decontamination is an important challenge resulting from the incorrect disposal of heavy metal waste into the environment. Among the different available techniques (e.g., filtration, coagulation, precipitation, and ion-exchange), adsorption is considered the cheapest and most effective procedure for the removal of water pollutants. In the last years, several materials have been tested for the removal of heavy metals from water, including metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), and graphene oxide (GO). Nevertheless, their powder consistency, which makes the recovery and reuse after adsorption difficult, is the main drawback for these materials. More recently, SWCNT buckypapers (SWCNT BPs) have been proposed as self-standing porous membranes for filtration and adsorption processes. In this paper, the adsorption capacity and selectivity of Pb2+ (both from neat solutions and in the presence of other interferents) by SWCNT BPs were evaluated as a function of the increasing amount of GO used in their preparation (GO-SWCNT buckypapers). The highest adsorption capacity, 479 ± 25 mg g−1, achieved for GO-SWCNT buckypapers with 75 wt.% of graphene oxide confirmed the effective application of such materials for cheap and fast water decontamination from lead.

Removal of Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs from Drinking Water Sources by GO-SWCNT Buckypapers

“…ratios, self-standing and flexible BP disks were obtained for a GO loading up to 75 wt.% (Figure 1e), while a further increase in GO amount gave cracked films due to insufficient π-π and van der Waals interaction forces between SWCNT and GO. Such results agree with the decrease in the rheological performance (reduced values of tensile strength and fracture strain) reported in the literature when large GO amounts were used in GO-SWCNT BPs preparation [47].…”

“…In our previous work, we proved that the partial substitution of SWCNTs with GO in BPs structure allowed the obtainment of self-standing hybrid buckypapers (GO-SWCNT BPs) useful for heavy metal removal with good efficiency [47]. With the present investigation, we aim to test the versatility of these GO-SWCNT BPs, evaluating the possibility of using them as a tool for the removal of NSAIDs (namely DIC, KET, and NAP) from wastewater.…”

“…BPs are characterized by interesting rheological, thermal, and electrical properties [42] and are successfully applied in filtration and adsorption processes. In fact, they show porous structure, low density, easy functionalization, as well as the possibility to host other adsorbents, such as natural polymers [43,44], MOF [45,46], and GO [47,48], to increase the adsorption efficiencies [46,49].…”

UV-Cured Chitosan-Based Hydrogels Strengthened by Tannic Acid for the Removal of Copper Ions from Water

“…Although copper is considered a micronutrient for human beings, an excessive dosage can cause acute toxicity, with sometimes lethal effects [ 4 ]. Therefore, the decontamination of heavy metal ions from water is an urgent and mandatory environmental need, since they are non-biodegradable and highly toxic substances that can enter the food chain with bioaccumulative effects [ 5 ].…”

“…The process can be categorized as physisorption or chemisorption, depending on the type of interaction between the adsorbate species and the adsorbent surface. Furthermore, the ease of performance and the possibility of multiple reuses, with no by-products, make the adsorption process an excellent choice for wastewater treatment [ 5 , 15 ]. In general, many materials, such as zeolite, clay minerals, activated carbon, silica, and magnetic particles, have been studied as adsorbents to remove metal ions from the aqueous phases [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 ].…”