Carboxylated multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs-COOH) have been used as an efficient adsorbent for the adsorption of rutin from water/ethanol solution and extract of bitter orange peel. Batch experiments such as solution pH, adsorbent dosage, contact time, concentration of the rutin, and temperature were carried out to study the sorption process. Kinetic studies were well described by a pseudosecondorder kinetic model for MWCNT-COOH. Besides, the adsorbed values of rutin at equilibrium were calculated to be 62.89 mg/g, which agreed well with the experimental data (62.13 mg/g). Isotherm studies showed that the Langmuir isotherm was found to be the best model for the description of the sorption data. ΔG values at temperatures of 298, 308, and 318 K were −1.9, −4.5, and −5.3 kJ/mol, respectively; these negative values for MWCNT-COOH indicated the nature of the spontaneous adsorption process. In addition, rutin molecules can be desorbed from MWCNT-COOH by up to 93.4% of the sorbed amount by increasing the solution pH to 11, which indicates the ability of reutilization of MWCNT-COOH. In addition, the results of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) showed that MWCNT-COOH leads to the adsorption and extraction of rutin about 50% from the extract of bitter orange peel.
K E Y W O R D Sadsorption, carbon nanotube, desorption, extract, mechanism, Rutin