Enhanced efficiency of polyethylenimine modified graphene oxide for water purification, Ali Al Nasser, Tawfik Saleh, Thomas Garrison

Ali H. Al Nasser*, Tawfik A. Saleh, Thomas F. Garrison
King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals
Dhahran 31261
Saudi Arabia
Abstract: The need for government projects, methods, and materials to improve water productivity greatly increases as the demand for water access rises. Industrial wastewater effluent containing dyes, including methylene blue (MB), should be properly treated for pollution transmission prevention. This study presents synthesizing and applying polyethylenimine-modified graphene oxide (PG) as an effective material to treat water, simultaneously removing MB and metals. Systematic characterization of adsorbent material and contaminant removal tests were conducted. Batch mode settings (initial concentration, contact time, temperature, pH, and metals concentration) are optimized. Dynamic experiments were conducted to investigate the flowrate effects. PG has a high capability for removing MB from water, where the highest uptake qm is 161.29 mg/g. PG simultaneously removes metals and MB and works effectively over a broad range of pH and temperatures. In the dynamic mode, a more practical approach for treating larger volumes of wastewater, PG is also found to perform well.
Keywords: Wastewater, Nanocomposite, Organic Pollutants, Heavy Metals, Adsorption, Simultaneous Removal, Water Treatment.