GO/PAMAM as a High Capacity Adsorbent for Removal of Alizarin Red S: Selective Separation of Dyes

Abstract

Adsorption of Alizarin Red S (ARS) on graphene oxide/poly(amidoamine) (GO/PAMAM) was studied at different ARS initial concentrations, temperatures, pHs, shaking rates and contact times. Adsorption sites of GO/PAMAM were phenolic –OH (Ph) group of GO and amine groups (–NH2, –NH+ 3 and –NHR+2) of PAMAM dendrimer moieties of GO/PAMAM. At pH = 2 and 318 K, maximum adsorption capacity (qe,max) of the adsorbent was 1275.2 mg g–1 which is one of the highest capacity in the literature. Thus, GO/PAMAM in this work acted as a superadsorbent for ARS. At the incipient of adsorption, ARS– molecules were adsorbed on Ph sites that was reaction-controlled step, (Ea = 114.5 kJ mol–1). Adsorption of ARS–on the remaining sites was diffusion–controlled. In alkaline media, two other types of ARS molecules were identified during that were adsorbed on Ph and –NH+ 3 sites. Further increasing the pH of the solution, decreased the number these two sites and yielded a reduced adsorption capacity (qe,max). Methylene blue (MB), thionine (Th), pyronin Y (PY), acridine orange (AO), methyl blue (MEB) and janus green (JG) dyes were selectively separated from their mixtures with ARS molecules using GO/PAMAM at pH of 2. The used adsorbent was recycled fficiently by using ethylenediamine very fast.