Influence of Adsorbent/Adsorbate Interactions on the Removal of Cationic Surfactants from Water by Graphene Oxide

摘要

This work addresses the synthesis of graphene oxide, its structural characterization, and its application in the removal of cationic surfactants from water. The synthesized graphene oxide was characterized by Raman, infrared and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies, scanning and transmission electron microscopies, and zeta potential. After the nanomaterial structural elucidation, optimization tests, studies of kinetics, isotherm, and thermodynamics of adsorption were performed to study adsorbent/adsorbate interactions in the adsorption process of cationic surfactants on graphene oxide. Under optimized conditions, graphene oxide showed the highest removal potential for the pyridinium-containing surfactant (2083 mg/g), followed by the benzyl-containing surfactant (431 mg/g) and the tetrakyl surfactant (329 mg/g), suggesting that electrostatic, hydrophobic, and cation-pi interactions are common in the process, but pyridinium-pi and pi-pi interactions are stronger. In addition, the adsorbent, under optimized conditions, compared with other sorbents described in the literature, presented higher potential adsorption.