The synergistic interactions between the as-received activated carbon fabric (ACFs) and the toxic hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) were investigated aiming to functionalize the carbon fabric and to remove the toxic Cr(VI) by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The effects of varying parameters such as pH, treatment time, initial Cr(VI) concentration and ACFs dose on the adsorption behavior of ACFs were discussed. Results revealed that ACFs could be used for an effective absorbent for Cr(VI) removal from aqueous solutions and different pH values had different effects on ACFs, pH=1.0 was found to be the optimum pH value for the Cr(VI) removal. For the pH=1.0 solution, the Cr(VI) in the aqueous solution was reduced to Cr(III) and were adsorbed onto the ACFs, and  the C-O and C=O functional groups were found to form on the ACFs surface. The redox kinetic in the pH=1.0 solution could be described by the pseudo-first-order model and the typical value of the pseudo-first-order rate constant was calculated to be 0.0872 min-1. Langmuir, Freundlich, and Temkin adsorption isotherm models were applied to describe isotherm constants, the Cr(VI) equilibrium data agreed well with the Langmiur isotherm model, with the maximum adsorption capacity of 5.59 mg g-1. The ACFs was found to be easily regenerated by 1.0 mol L-1 sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and could be effectively recycled 7 times with the removal percentage decreased by 16.5%, the decreased adsorption behavior was caused by the formation of oxygen functional groups on the surface of ACFs which was irreversible.KEYWORDS: Activated carbon fabrics; Synergistic interactions; Oxygen functional groups; Redox reaction; Chromium removal

Synergistic interactions between activated carbon fabric and toxic hexavalent chromium

247th National Meeting (2014)

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