Abstract
A zinc oxide-coated nanoporous carbon sorbent was prepared by acid modification and ZnO functionalization of mesoporous carbon. The synthesized materials, such as mesoporous carbon, oxidized mesoporous carbon and zinc oxide-coated nanoporous carbon, were characterized by nitrogen adsorption–desorption analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectra, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. ZnO on oxidized mesoporous carbon gradually increased with increase in the number of cycles. Furthermore, the effects of agitation time, initial metal ions concentration, adsorbent dose, temperature and pH on the efficiency of Pb(II) ion removal were investigated as the controllable factors by Taguchi method. The value of correlation coefficients showed that the equilibrium data fitted well to the Langmuir isotherm. Among the adsorbents, zinc oxide-coated nanoporous carbon showed the largest adsorption capacity of 522.8 mg/g (2.52 mmol/g) which was almost close to that of the zinc oxide-coated (2.38 mmol/g), indicating the monolayer spreading of ZnO onto the oxidized mesoporous carbon. The results of the present study suggest that ZnO-coated nanoporous carbon can be effectively used for Pb(II) adsorption from aqueous solution, whereas a part of acidic functional groups may be contributed to binding the Pb(II) for the oxidized mesoporous carbon and mesoporous carbon. Kinetic studies indicated that the overall adsorption process of Pb(II) followed the pseudo-second-order model. The ZnO-coated nanoporous carbon was regenerated and found to be suitable of reuse of the adsorbent for successive adsorption–desorption cycles without considerable loss of adsorption capacity.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Agrawal A, Sahu KK, Pandey BD (2005) Systematic studies on adsorption of lead on sea nodule residues. J Colloid Interface Sci 281:291–298
Anbia M, Mohammadi K (2008) Removal of copper-phthalocyanine from aqueous solution by cationically templated MCM-41 and MCM-48 nanoporous adsorbents. Chin J Chem 26:2051–2055
Anbia M, Mohammadi N (2009) A nanoporous adsorbent for removal of furfural from aqueous solutions. Desalination 249:150–153
Anbia M, Moradi SE (2009) Removal of naphthalene from petrochemical wastewater streams using carbon nanoporous adsorbent. Appl Surf Sci 255:5041–5047
Anbia M, Mohammadi N, Mohammadi K (2010) Fast and efficient mesoporous adsorbents for the separation of toxic compounds from aqueous media. J Hazard Mater 176:965–972
Atil H, Unver Y (2000) A different approach of experimental design: Taguchi method. Pak J Biol Sci 3:1538–1540
Ayranci E, Hoda N (2005) Adsorption kinetics and isotherms of pesticides onto activated carbon-cloth. Chemosphere 60:1600–1607
Baniamerian MJ, Moradi SE, Noori A, Salahi H (2009) The effect of surface modification on heavy metal ion removal from water by carbon nanoporous adsorbent. Appl Surf Sci 256:1347–1354
Bazula PA, Lu AH, Nitz JJ, Schuth F (2008) Surface and pore structure modification of ordered mesoporous carbons via a chemical oxidation approach. Microporous Mesoporous Mater. 108:266–275
Benguell B, Benaissa H (2002) Cadmium removal from aqueous solutions by chitin: kinetic and equilibrium studies. Water Res 36:2463–2474
Benhamou A, Baudu M, Derriche Z, Basly JP (2009) Aqueous heavy metals removal on amine functionalized Si-MCM-41and Si-MCM-48. J Hazard Mater 171:1001–1008
Boehm HP (2002) Surface oxides on carbon and their analysis: a critical assessment. Carbon 40:145–149
Chen X, Jeyaseelan S, Graham N (2002) Physical and chemical properties study of the activated carbon made from sewage sludge. Waste Manag 22:755–760
Colilla M, Balas F, Manzano M, Vallet-Regi M (2008) Novel method to synthesize ordered mesoporous silica with high surface areas. Solid State Sci 10:408–415
Eiden CA, Jewell CA, Wightman JP (1980) Interaction of lead and chromium with chitin and chitosan. J Appl Polym Sci 25:1587–1599
El-demerdash FM, Elegamy EI (1996) Biological effects in Tilapia nilotica fish as indicators of pollution by cadmium and mercury. Int J Environ Healthy Res 9:173–186
Emmett PH (1954) Measurements of the surface area of solid catalysts, in cataysis. Reinhold Publishing Corporation, New York
Goel J, Kadirvelu K, Rajagopal C, Garg VK (2005) Removal of lead(II) by adsorption using treated granular activated carbon: batch and column studies. J Hazard Mater 125:211–220
Gregg SJ, Sing KSW (1982) Adsorption, surface area and porosity. Academic Press, London
Hamadi NK, Chen XD, Farid MM, Lu MGQ (2001) Adsorption kinetics for the removal of chromium(VI) from aqueous solution by adsorbents derived from used tyres and sawdust. Chem Eng J 84:95–105
Han RP, Zou WH, Zhang ZP, Shi J, Yang JJ (2006) Removal of copper(II) and lead(II) from aqueous solution by manganese oxide coated sand I. Characterization and kinetic study. J Hazard Mater 137:384–395
Heidari A, Younesi H, Mehraban Z (2009) Removal of Ni(II), Cd(II), and Pb(II) from a ternary aqueous solution by amino functionalized mesoporous and nanomesoporous silica. Chem Eng J 153(1–3):70–79
Ho YS, Ng JCY, McKay G (2001) Removal of lead(II) from effluents by sorption on peat using second-order kinetics. Sep Sci Technol 36:241–261
Ho Y, Porter J, McKay G (2002) Equilibrium isotherm studies for the sorption of divalent metal ions onto peat: copper, nickel and lead single component systems. Water Air Soil Pollut 141:1–33
Jun S, Joo SH, Ryoo R, Kruk M, Jaroniec M, Liu Z, Ohsuna T, Terasaki O (2000) Synthesis of new, nanoporous carbon with hexagonally ordered mesostructure. J Am Chem Soc 122:10712–10713
Karagoz S, Tay T, Ucar S (2008) Activated carbon from waste biomass by sulphuric acid activation and their use on methylene blue adsorption. Biores Technol 99:6214–6222
Kikuchi Y, Qian Q, Machida M, Tatsumoto H (2006) Effect of ZnO loading to activated carbon on Pb(II) adsorption from aqueous solution. Carbon 44:195–202
Kresge CT, Leonowicz ME, Roth WJ, Vartuli JC, Beck JS (1992) Ordered mesoporous molecular sieves synthesized by a liquid-crystal template mechanism. Nature 359:710–712
Kruk M, Jaroniec M (2001) Gas adsorption characterization of ordered organic-inorganic nanocomposite materials. Chem Mater 13:3169–3183
Li YH, Wang SG, Wei JQ, Zhang XF, Xu CL, Luan ZK, Wu DH, Wei BQ (2002) Lead adsorption on carbon nanotubes. Chem Phys Lett 357:263–266
Li YH, Di ZC, Ding J, Wu DH, Luan ZK, Zhu YQ (2005) Adsorption thermodynamic, kinetic and desorption studies of Pb2+ on carbon nanotubes. Water Res 39:605–609
Malakootian M, Nouri J, Hossaini H (2009) Removal of heavy metals from paint industry’s wastewater using Leca as an available adsorbent. Int J Environ Sci Technol 6(2):183–190
Mangrulkar PA, Kamble SP, Meshram J, Rayalu SS (2008) Adsorption of phenol and o-chlorophenol by mesoporous MCM-41. J Hazard Mater 160:414–421
Marzal P, Seco A, Gabaldo C, Ferrer J (1996) Cadmium and zinc adsorption onto activated carbon: influence of temperature, pH and metal/carbon ratio. J Chem Technol Biotechnol 66:279–285
Morey MS, O’Brien S, Schwarz S, Stucky GD (2000) Hydrothermal and postsynthesis surface modification of cubic, MCM-48, and ultralarge pore SBA-15 mesoporous silica with titanium. Chem Mater 12:898–911
Naseem R, Tahir SS (2001) Removal of Pb(II) from aqueous/acidic solutions by using bentonite as an adsorbent. Water Res 35(16):3982
Noll KE, Gounaris V, Hou WS (1992) Adsorption technology for air and water pollution control. Lewis Publisher, Michigan
Purna Chandra Rao G, Satyaveni S, Ramesh A, Seshaiah K, Murthy KSN, Choudary NV (2006) Sorption of cadmium and zinc from aqueous solutions by zeolite 4A, zeolite 13X and bentonite. J Environ Manag 81:265–272
Ryoo R, Joo SH, Jun S (1999) Synthesis of highly ordered carbon molecular sieves via template-mediated structural transformation. J Phys Chem B 103:7743–7746
Ryoo R, Joo SH, Kruk M, Jaroniec M (2001) Ordered mesoporous carbons. Adv Mater 13(9):677–681
Saeed A, Iqbal M (2003) Bioremoval of cadmium from aqueous solution by black gram husk (Cicerarientinum). Water Res 37:3472–3480
Seco A, Marzal P, Gabaldo C (1997) Adsorption of heavy metals from aqueous solutions onto activated carbon in single Cu and Ni systems and in binary Cu.Ni, Cu.Cd and Cu.Z systems. J Chem Technol Biotechnol 68:23–30
Shahbazi A, Younesi H, Badiei A (2011) Functionalized SBA-15 mesoporous silica by melamine-based dendrimer amines for adsorptive characteristics of Pb(II), Cu(II) and Cd(II) heavy metal ions in batch and fixed bed. Chem Eng J 168(2):505–518
Sharma A, Bhattacharyya KG (2004) Adsorption of chromium(VI) on Azadirachta Indica (Neem) leaf powder. Adsorption 10:327–338
Smiciklas ID, Milonjic SK, Pfendt P, Raicevic S (2000) The point of zero charge and sorption of cadmium (II) and strontium (II) ions on synthetic hydroxyapatite. Sep Purif Technol 18:185–194
Stevenson FJ (1994) Humus chemistry: genesis, composition, reactions, 2nd edn. John Wiley and Sons, New York
Taguchi G (1990) Introduction to quality engineering. McGraw-Hill, New York
Taguchi A, Schuth F (2005) Ordered mesoporous materials in catalysis. Microporous Mesoporous Mater. 77:1–45
Tamura H, Furuichi R (1997) Adsorption affinity of divalent heavy metal ions for metal oxides evaluated by modeling with the Frumkin isotherm. J Colloid Interface Sci 195:241–249
Urik M, Littera P, Sevc J, Kolencik M, Cernansky S (2009) Removal of arsenic (V) from aqueous solutions using chemically modified sawdust of spruce (Picea abies): kinetics and isotherm studies. Int J Environ Sci Tech 6(3):451–456
Vinke P, Eijk MV, Verbree M, Voskamp AF, Bekkum HV (1994) Modification of the surfaces of a gas activated carbon and a chemically activated carbon with nitric acid, hypochlorite, and ammonia. Carbon 32:675–686
Vinu A, Hossian KZ, Srinivasu P, Miyahara M, Anandan S, Gokulakrishnan N, Mori T, Ariga K, Balasubramanian VV (2007) Carboxy-mesoporous carbon and its excellent adsorption capability for proteins. J Mater Chem 17:1819–1825
Vukojevic Medvidovic N, Peric J, Trgo M (2006) Column performance in lead removal from aqueous solutions by fixed bed of natural zeolite–clinoptilolite. Sep Purif Technol 49:237–244
Wagner A, Boman J (2003) Biomonitoring of trace elements in muscle and liver tissue of freshwater fish. Spectrochimica Acta Part B. 58:2215–2226
Wang SG, Gong WX, Liu XW, Yao YW, Gao BY, Yue QY (2007) Removal of lead(II) from aqueous solution by adsorption onto manganese oxide-coated carbon nanotubes. Sep Purif Technol 58:17–23
Xu Y, Xie Z, Xue L (2011) Chelation of heavy metals by potassium butyl dithiophosphate. J. Environ Sci 23(5):778–783
Zhao D, Feng J, Huo Q, Melosh N, Fredrickson GH, Chmelka BF, Stucky GD (1998a) Triblock copolymer syntheses of mesoporous silica with periodic 50 to 300 angstrom pores. Science 279:548–552
Zhao D, Huo Q, Feng J, Chmelka BF, Stucky GD (1998b) Nonionic triblock and star diblock copolymer and oligomeric surfactant syntheses of highly ordered, hydrothermally stable, mesoporous silica structures. J Am Chem Soc 120:6024–6036
Zolfaghari G, Esmaili-sari A, Ghasempouri SM, HassanzadeKiabi B (2007) Examination of mercury concentration in the feather of 18 species of birds in southwest Iran. Environ Res 104:258–265
Acknowledgments
We appreciate Dr. Mehdi Nasiri because of his close guidance. The authors also thank Iran University of Science and Technology for considerable laboratory support at the Research Laboratory of Nanoporous Materials, Iran Nanotechnology Initiative Council, and Tarbiat Modares University.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zolfaghari, G., Esmaili-Sari, A., Anbia, M. et al. A zinc oxide-coated nanoporous carbon adsorbent for lead removal from water: Optimization, equilibrium modeling, and kinetics studies. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 10, 325–340 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-012-0135-6
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-012-0135-6