Synthesis of nanostructured ZnO loaded on carbon cloth as high potential adsorbent for copper ion

Abstract

In this study removal of copper ion from aqueous solution by activated carbon cloth and carbon cloth loaded with nanostructured zinc oxide was investigated. Microwave assisted chemical bath deposition method as a simple and rapid method was used to deposit nanostructured ZnO onto activated carbon cloth. The deposited ZnO was characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) methods. SEM images showed that the structure of deposited ZnO is flower like with size of 2–5 μm. XRD spectrum shows characteristic peaks of zinc oxide with crystalline size of 22 nm. The prepared ZnO-loaded activated carbon cloth was used as adsorbent for removal of copper ion from aqueous solution. The effects of the contact time, initial metal ion concentration, and pH on removal efficiency were examined. Kinetic experimental data were fitted to the pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order kinetic models. The equilibrium experimental results were fitted to Langmuir and Freundlich models. The maximum adsorption capacity of the ZnO-loaded carbon cloth is 769 (mg/g) which is much higher than activated carbon cloth.

Keywords:

• Adsorption
• Copper ion
• Activated carbon cloth
• Nanostructure
• Zinc oxide

Acknowledgment

The authors acknowledge Miss M. Bagheri for her technical assistant.