Preparation of Palygorskite/Carbon Nanocomposites and Its Adsorption for Phenol

摘要

In recent years, the cheap clay mineral as adsorbents for the advanced treatment for wastewater has been paid more attention. Palygorskite, a kind of natural nano- mineral materials which is abundant in Anhui and Jiangsu Province , China, is one-dimensional magnesium-aluminum silicate clay mineral whose diameter is between 30 and 50 nm [1]. It is characterized by a high surface area, nano-effects, adsorption activity and chemical activity. These physico-chemical characters make it a potentially adsorbent of heavy metals such as Cd, Cu, etc., from wastewater. However, natural palygorskite have limited application in adsorbing organic pollutant due to its great hydrophilicity. Its adsorption capacity of organics can be significantly increased by surfactant modification [1-5]. In this work, the organic modification of palygorskite was achieved by loading nanocarbon onto palygorskite. The evaluation of organic modification was done by adsorption of low concentration of phenol on the palygorskite/carbon composite. The kinetics and thermodynamics of sorption were also investigated.