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A comparative adsorption study of trinitrotoluene onto graphene oxide, reduced graphene oxide and reduced graphene oxide-coated silica nanoparticles through equilibrium, kinetic and thermodynamic modeling

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Abstract

The surface properties and adsorption mechanisms of graphene materials are important for potential environmental applications. The considerable aggregation of nanosheets decreases its powerful adsorption capacity and diminishes its practical applications. To overcome this shortcoming, graphene-coated materials are employed using silica nanoparticles. The adsorption study of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene onto graphene oxide, reduced graphene oxide and reduced graphene oxide-coated materials is investigated by batch experiments. Experimental results indicate that the hydrophilic graphene oxide displays the lowest adsorption capacity. The adsorption of reduced graphene oxide is considerably increased due to the retrieval of hydrophobic π-conjugation carbon atoms as active sites. And thus, reduced graphene oxide which has more defect sites than does graphene oxide nanosheets results in higher adsorption. Once wrapped around the surface of the silica particles, the microscopic morphology of reduced graphene oxide is loose and porous and the hydrophilic surface of the silica particles becomes hydrophobic and possesses an additional π-electron-conjugated structure, resulting in highest affinity. With the support of silica, the stacked interlamination of graphene is held open to expose the powerful adsorption sites in the interlayers. Higher adsorption is also dominated by electrostatic and polar interactions between the nitro groups of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene and defect sites in the nanoadsorbents.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to Lebanese University for the financial support of this work.

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Correspondence to Mounir Kassir.

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Raad, M.T., Kassir, M., El Khatib, W. et al. A comparative adsorption study of trinitrotoluene onto graphene oxide, reduced graphene oxide and reduced graphene oxide-coated silica nanoparticles through equilibrium, kinetic and thermodynamic modeling. Graphene Technol 2, 63–73 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41127-017-0011-8

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