Article Sidebar
Published:
May 15, 2022DOI:
10.4314/njt.v41i1.20Keywords:
Article Details
Copyright belongs to the Faculty of Engineering, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria
The contents of the articles are the sole opinion of the author(s) and not of NIJOTECH.
NIJOTECH allows open access for distribution of the published articles in any media so long as whole (not part) of articles are distributed.
A copyright and statement of originality documents will need to be filled out clearly and signed prior to publication of an accepted article. The Copyright form can be downloaded from https://www.nijotech.com/downloads/COPYRIGHT%20FORM.pdf while the Statement of Originality is in Statement of Originality.pdf (nijotech.com)
For articles that were developed from funded research, a clear acknowledgement of such support should be mentioned in the article with relevant references. Authors are expected to provide complete information on the sponsorship and intellectual property rights of the article together with all exceptions.
It is forbidden to publish the same research report in more than one journal.
Main Article Content
Incorporation of zero-valent silver and polyvinyl acetate on the surface matrix of carbon nanotubes for the adsorption of mercury and chromium from industrial wastewater
Abstract
Herein, zero-valent silver (Ag0) and polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) was ultrasonically incorporated into the surface matrix of MWCNTs to produce a multifunctional MWCNTs-Ag0/PVAc nanocomposite. The MWCNTs, MWCNTs-Ag0 and MWCNTs-Ag0/PVAc were characterized for the thermal stability, crystallographic structure and morphology using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and high resolution scanning electron microscopy (HRSEM). Industrial wastewater containing Hg(II) and Cr(VI) ions were treated using the fabricated MWCNTs-Ag0/PVAc at different adsorption parameters such as pH, adsorbent mass, adsorption time and temperature. The characterization result obtained indicated successful incorporation of the Ag0 and PVAc to the surface matrix of MWCNTs-Ag0/PVAc. The materials were thermally stable and the crystalline peaks/patterns of the incorporated materials were evident on the MWCNTs-Ag0/PVAc. The adsorption study revealed maximum adsorption capacity of 249 mg/g and 237 mg/g for the Hg(II) and Cr(VI) by MWCNTs-Ag0/PVAc at the pH (6 for Hg(II) and 3 for Cr(VI)), adsorbent mass (40 mg), adsorption time (60 min) and temperature (30 °C). The experimental data effectively fitted the Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second order kinetic, respectively. Finally, MWCNTs-Ag0/PVAc showed remarkable performance as a suitable adsorbent for heavy metals removal from industrial wastewater.
