Removal of Heavy-Metal Ions from Aqueous Solutions Using Activated Carbons: Effect of Adsorbent Surface Modification with Carbon Nanotubes

This paper describes the effect of surface nanomodification of porous adsorbents. Two commercial activated carbons (ACs), AG-5 and NWC coconut shell based, were used as adsorbents. The adsorbents were modified with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) by chemical vapour deposition. The CNTs were synthesized in t...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: A. Burakov, I. Romantsova, A. Kucherova, A. Tkachev
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publishing 2014-09-01
Series:Adsorption Science & Technology
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1260/0263-6174.32.9.737
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Summary:This paper describes the effect of surface nanomodification of porous adsorbents. Two commercial activated carbons (ACs), AG-5 and NWC coconut shell based, were used as adsorbents. The adsorbents were modified with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) by chemical vapour deposition. The CNTs were synthesized in the presence of a metal-oxide catalyst prepared using a citrate solgel method. The concentration of metal ions was evaluated by a spectrophotometric method. Experimental results show that the nanomodification of ACs increased their equilibrium adsorption of heavy metals (Ni 2+ and Co 2+ ) by 10–30%. Besides, the adsorption behaviour of these metal ions on the standard and nanomodified ACs was determined based on adsorption isotherms. A theoretical description of the adsorption mechanism is presented, and equilibrium constants were calculated. Experimental data on the adsorption of the heavy-metal ions on the nanomodified carbons were successfully fitted to the Langmuir and Freundlich models.
ISSN:0263-6174
2048-4038