Perfluorooctanoic
acid (PFOA) persists in the environment for a
long time due to its stable physical and chemical properties, and
it is harmful to the environment and biological system. In order to
effectively remove PFOA from aqueous solution, Cu nanoparticles and
fluorine-modified graphene aerogel (Cu/F-rGA) were fabricated by the
microbubble template method. Compared with unmodified aerogels (rGA),
the adsorption rate of PFOA on Cu/F-rGA was enhanced 2.68-fold. These
significant improvements were assumed to benefit from the ligand exchange
reaction and hydrophobic and F–F interactions. The regeneration
of Cu/F-rGA maintained 73.26% with ethanol as the desorption solvent
after 10 times adsorption–desorption. The fitting results of
the statistical physics model showed that PFOA tended to be parallel
to the adsorption site at low temperature and perpendicular at high
temperature. The number of PFOA molecules connected to each adsorption
site was 0.53 to 1.41, and the number of adsorption layers of PFOA
on the Cu/F-rGA was between 1.63 and 2.51. Compared with the response
surface methodology and artificial neural network, an adaptive neuro-fuzzy
inference system had more accurate analysis and prediction results.
These results provide an effective and alternative strategy to remove
PFOA from aqueous solution with environment-friendly consumption.