Kinetics, Equilibrium, and Thermodynamics of the Sorption of Bisphenol A onto N-CNTs-β-Cyclodextrin and Fe/N-CNTs-β-Cyclodextrin Nanocomposites

• Main Authors: Keletso Mphahlele, Maurice S. Onyango, Sabelo D. Mhlanga
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hindawi Limited 2015-01-01
• Series: Journal of Nanomaterials
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/214327
• ISSN: 1687-4110; 1687-4129

We analysed the adsorptive behaviour of Fe/N-CNTs-β-CD nanocomposite in the removal of bisphenol A (BPA) from aqueous solution and identified the key influencing parameters. The Fe/N-CNTs-β-CD nanocomposite adsorbent was prepared by dispersing Fe uniformly on N-CNTs-β-CD using a microwave polyol method and characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The solution pH and temperature had minimal effect on sorption of BPA while the initial concentration and adsorbent mass affected the adsorption of BPA. No leaching of Fe into the water was observed; thus the nanocomposites were found suitable for use in water purification. From equilibrium isotherm studies, the Langmuir isotherm model gave the best description of the experimental data. The Langmuir monolayer adsorption capacities of BPA onto N-CNTs-β-CD and Fe/N-CNTs-β-CD are 38.20 mg·g−1 and 80.65 mg·g−1 at 298 K, respectively. Evidently, these adsorption capacity values gave an indication that uniform dispersion of Fe N-CNTs-β-CD prepared by the microwave polyol method enhances the adsorption of BPA. Meanwhile, the sorption kinetics of BPA onto Fe/N-CNTs-β-CD were best described by the pseudo-second-order model.