TY - JOUR
T1 - Robust reduced graphene oxide-PDA/ZIF-8 aerogel composite for cyclic, high-capacity dye adsorption
AU - Mazlan, Nurul A.
AU - Butt, Fraz Saeed
AU - Lewis, Allana
AU - Krishnamoorthi, Rajakumari
AU - Chen, Siyu
AU - Radacsi, Norbert
AU - Huang, Yi
N1 - This work was funded by [Jiangsu Dingying New Materials Co., Ltd.] under Grant Number [C − 00005685] and the School of Engineering, the University of Edinburgh. N.A.M. acknowledges the Malaysian Government for awarding a Ph.D. scholarship. F.S.B. thanks the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan for awarding a Ph.D. scholarship. The authors would like to thank Fergus Dingwall for his laboratory assistance.
This work was funded by Jianshu Dingying New Materials Co., Ltd. under Grant Number [C − 00005685] and the School of Engineering, the University of Edinburgh.
PY - 2024/4/14
Y1 - 2024/4/14
N2 - The contamination of nanosized organic dyes in the water bodies is of great concern as it adversely affects the marine ecosystem and biodiversity, leading to water-borne ailments. In recent years, designing sustainable, high-performance, and cost-effective composite adsorbents embedded with functional adsorbents for wastewater treatment has attracted immense attention. In this work, a new composite aerogel (rGO-PDA/ZIF-8) was prepared via self-assembling graphene oxide (GO) flakes to form a three-dimensional (3D) structure with functional polydopamine (PDA). Then, ZIF-8 crystals were decorated on the porous aerogel structure via the in-situ crystallization method. PDA-modified rGO aerogel provided abundant useful functional groups, such as –OH, –COOH, and –NH–, on the surface, while the incorporation of ZIF-8 nanocrystals further endowed composite aerogels with higher surface area and extra functional groups for enhanced organic dye adsorption. Our results revealed that the composite aerogel exhibited not only ultrahigh adsorption towards methylene blue (MB) with a maximum adsorption capacity of 1045 ± 2.9 mg g−1 (with a maximum rejection rate of > 99 %) but also excellent recyclability with a slightly decreased adsorption capacity of 897 ± 26.9 mg g−1 and a stable removal efficiency of > 92 % even after 10 cycles of adsorption. To the best of our knowledge, the obtained adsorption capacity almost doubled the best-reported values at similar conditions in the literature. The excellent adsorption performance is owing to strong π–π and electrostatic attractions between the dye molecules and the hierarchical porous composite structures with functional PDA coating and ZIF-8 nano-adsorbents. Therefore, the new composite rGO-PDA/ZIF-8 aerogel composite has great potential in high-performance, cyclic small organic dye separation.
AB - The contamination of nanosized organic dyes in the water bodies is of great concern as it adversely affects the marine ecosystem and biodiversity, leading to water-borne ailments. In recent years, designing sustainable, high-performance, and cost-effective composite adsorbents embedded with functional adsorbents for wastewater treatment has attracted immense attention. In this work, a new composite aerogel (rGO-PDA/ZIF-8) was prepared via self-assembling graphene oxide (GO) flakes to form a three-dimensional (3D) structure with functional polydopamine (PDA). Then, ZIF-8 crystals were decorated on the porous aerogel structure via the in-situ crystallization method. PDA-modified rGO aerogel provided abundant useful functional groups, such as –OH, –COOH, and –NH–, on the surface, while the incorporation of ZIF-8 nanocrystals further endowed composite aerogels with higher surface area and extra functional groups for enhanced organic dye adsorption. Our results revealed that the composite aerogel exhibited not only ultrahigh adsorption towards methylene blue (MB) with a maximum adsorption capacity of 1045 ± 2.9 mg g−1 (with a maximum rejection rate of > 99 %) but also excellent recyclability with a slightly decreased adsorption capacity of 897 ± 26.9 mg g−1 and a stable removal efficiency of > 92 % even after 10 cycles of adsorption. To the best of our knowledge, the obtained adsorption capacity almost doubled the best-reported values at similar conditions in the literature. The excellent adsorption performance is owing to strong π–π and electrostatic attractions between the dye molecules and the hierarchical porous composite structures with functional PDA coating and ZIF-8 nano-adsorbents. Therefore, the new composite rGO-PDA/ZIF-8 aerogel composite has great potential in high-performance, cyclic small organic dye separation.
KW - Aerogel Composite
KW - Nano-Adsorbent
KW - PDA
KW - Reduced Graphene Oxide
KW - ZIF-8
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85179847014&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.seppur.2023.126005
DO - 10.1016/j.seppur.2023.126005
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85179847014
SN - 1383-5866
VL - 334
JO - Separation and Purification Technology
JF - Separation and Purification Technology
M1 - 126005
ER -