Structural and adsorption behaviour of ZnO/aminated SWCNT-COOH for malachite green removal: face-centred central composite design

Abstract

In this study, an effective adsorbent was synthesized to remove malachite green (MG), which is one of the toxic dyes. Firstly, single walled carbon nanotube with carboxylated acid (SWCNT-COOH) was functionalized with diethylenetriamine and a new nanocomposite was obtained using nano zinc oxide (ZnO) powder. The effects of pH (3–7), the amount of adsorbent (5–15 mg) and the initial concentration $(10–50 mg ^{L–1})$ of the solution on the adsorption uptake were investigated. The optimal parameters that maximize the adsorption uptake according to the specified working range are found to be 4.63 for pH, 49.94 $mg L^{–1}$ for initial concentration, 5.25 mg for the adsorbent dose, and the maximum adsorption capacity has been found as 52.26 $mg g^{–1}$. The excellent fitting of the pseudosecond kinetic model with (R2 = 0.9912) was fitted the experimental data. The Freundlich isotherm model gave a clue about the type of adsorption. Furthermore, thermodynamic results showed that adsorption process was endothermic.