Graphene–Biochar Composite for Effective Congo Red Dye Removal from Water
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 148, Issue 7
Abstract
Congo red (CR), a harmful pollutant, is increasingly contaminating aquatic environments. The removal of CR from wastewater is important. This study developed a novel graphene–biochar composite (GR-BC) to enhance CR treatment. The physicochemical properties of GR-BC were studied using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller techniques. The CR adsorption capacities of biochar (BC) and GR-BC were analyzed using batch adsorption experiments. The effect of the initial pH of the CR solution, CR concentration, and adsorption time of CR were determined. The SEM, XRD, and FT-IR results showed that graphene was loaded successfully onto the BC. The BET results showed that GR-BC had a larger surface area than BC. The adsorption experiments showed that the highest CR adsorption efficiency occurred at pH 2, and reached 99.6% and 99.5% for BC and GR-BC, respectively. The GR-BC treatment was better at removing CR dye than was BC. The highest Langmuir adsorptive capacity of GR-BC () was double of that of BC (). The higher values for the Freundlich isotherm than for the Langmuir isotherm indicate that the Freundlich isotherm model best fit the experimental data for both BC and GR-BC. The pseudo-second-order model () successfully described the adsorption kinetics of CR dye by both BC and GR-BC. In addition, the influence of ionic strength and coexisting ions on CR adsorption by BC was greater than that on CR adsorption by GR-BC, indicating that GR-BC is more stable than BC. Recycling experiments showed that CR removal still 50% after the fifth cycle for GR-BC, which was higher than that for BC (35%), suggesting that GR-BC has better reusability than BC. Thus, the GR-BC composite is a potential adsorbent for CR dye removal.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
The project was funded by the Key Research and Development Projects of Zhejiang Province, China (Grant Nos. 2020C02030 and 2019C02045), the Project of Unification of Water and Soil Sciences for One Health funded by Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and the Green Development Demonstration County construction project of Huangyan (HY202002).
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Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 148 • Issue 7 • July 2022
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© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Aug 22, 2021
Accepted: Feb 1, 2022
Published online: Apr 18, 2022
Published in print: Jul 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Sep 18, 2022
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