Compared to other water treatment technologies, adsorption is adopted widely due to its ease of application, economic viability, and scalability. To simplify the treatment process, it is important to develop adsorptive media to remove multiple contaminants at the same time. Arsenic (As) and lead (Pb) contamination of drinking water possesses a great threat to public health due to their chronic toxicity and carcinogenicity that have affected millions of people worldwide. We are reporting a facile and easy to adopt sol-gel process to synthesize graphene oxide iron nanohybrid (GFeN) that can achieve efficient removal of both arsenic and lead. Transmission electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses have confirmed that iron nanoparticles were dispersedly decorated onto the graphene oxide layers and they have a core-shell structure with a metallic iron core with iron oxyhydroxide shell (Fe/Fe<sub>x</sub>O<sub>y</sub>).  The effects of adsorbent dosage, pH, and contact time on arsenic and lead adsorption by the nanohybrid were investigated. At the environmentally relevant concentration of 100 μg/L, GFeN removed ~99% arsenic in 10 min, and lead in &lt;5 min. Batch experiments were carried out in separate batch reactors for arsenic and lead to evaluate the adsorption isotherms and reaction kinetics. Further, removal mechanisms of arsenic and lead are investigated from the adsorption and XPS data. The role of the graphene oxide sheets as adsorption sites and electron mediators to enhance the reactivity of iron nanoparticles was examined.

Multifunctional graphene oxide iron nanohybrid for aqueous arsenic and lead removal

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.