Functionalized metal-organic framework-derived carbon: Effective adsorbent to eliminate methylene blue, a small cationic dye from water

Md Abul Hossain, Md Mahmudul Hassan Mondol, Sung Hwa Jhung

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

22 Scopus citations

Abstract

Elimination of organic dyes from wastewater is very important for our safe environment and sound health. In this work, adsorptive removal of cationic dyes, especially small ones, was investigated with carbonaceous materials to develop a competitive adsorption technology. To improve the performance of metal-organic framework (MOF)-derived carbons (MDCs) in dye adsorption, an MDC, derived from a MOF (MAF-6), was oxidatively functionalized with ammonium persulfate solutions (APSs). Although the porosity of pristine MDC decreased with functionalization via oxidation, functionalized MDCs (FMDCs), especially FMDC(1.0) that was obtained via treating MDC with APS (1.0 M), showed remarkable performances in the adsorption of small cationic dyes like methylene blue (MB) and azure B. For example, FMDC(1.0) had the maximum adsorption capacity (Qo) of 625.0 mg/g (for MB) which is larger than any reported value with carbonaceous materials. Moreover, the obtained Qo was around 4 and 2 times that of activated carbon with Qo of 160 mg/g and MDC with Qo of 298 mg/g, respectively. On the contrary, oxidative treatment of MDC was negative in adsorption of an anionic dye such as methyl orange. Moreover, the functionalized MDC was not very effective in the adsorption of cationic dyes with large sizes (like brilliant green, crystal violet, Janus green B, and rhodamine B) because of the limited pore size of the studied adsorbent FMDC(1.0). The remarkable adsorption of MB over FMDC(1.0) could be explained by electrostatic and π–π interactions. Finally, the facile recyclability of the FMDC(1.0) in MB adsorption was confirmed via successive adsorptions, FT-IR, and nitrogen adsorption; therefore, FMDC(1.0) can be suggested as a potential adsorbent to remove cationic dyes, especially with small molecular sizes.

Original languageEnglish
Article number134890
JournalChemosphere
Volume303
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2022

Keywords

  • Adsorption
  • Carbonaceous materials
  • Dye
  • Mechanism
  • Oxidation

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