Graphene oxide/ZnO nanocomposites for efficient removal of heavy metal and organic contaminants from water

Abstract

The graphene oxide-zinc oxide (GO-ZnO) nanocomposite was fabricated and applied as the adsorbent to survey the adsorption characteristics of the adsorbates of organic and inorganic water contaminations in an aqueous solution. The synthesized nanocomposite has been characterized using X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and Scanning electron microscope (SEM), indicating that the nanocomposite was synthesized successfully. The impact of the initial solution concentrations and pH was investigated, indicating that the synthesized compound has a high adsorption capacity and capability to remove both organic and inorganic contamination. The kinetic adsorption could also be well described by Pseudo-second-order (PSO) kinetic expressions. The equilibrium adsorption findings indicated that the Langmuir was more suitable than Temkin, Freundlich, and Flory-Higgins models. High adsorption capacity of 99.00, 125, 121.95 and 277.78 mg/g respectiviety for Methylene blue (MB), Methyl orange (MO), Cd2+, and Pb2+ The antibacterial assay was also performed using Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli in which the ZnO nanocomposite proved to be an effective Bactericide that inhibits the growth of bacteria. The obtained results indicated that the synthesized GO-ZnO nanocomposites are ideal adsorbents for the MB, MO, Cd2+, and Pb2+ removals in an aqueous solution.