Evaluation of Carbon Nanotubes Efficiency for Removal of Janus Green Dye from Ganjnameh River Water Sample

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, Department of the Environment, College of Basic Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Hamedan Branch,Hamedan, Iran

2 MSc, Young Researchers and Elite Club, Islamic Azad University, Hamedan Branch, Hamedan, Iran

Abstract

Background: Dyes are widely applied in the textile, paper, plastic, leather, food and cosmetic industry and color manufacture. Many of these dyes are toxic and carcinogenic. Therefore, removal of dyes from the effluents is essential for environmental protection. The aim of this research is evaluation of the removal efficacy of Janus Green dye from real samples of Ganjnameh River water using multi-walled carbon nanotube. Methods: This study was performed at field-lab scale in the spring of 2012 on a sample from the Ganjnameh River. All of the experiments were done under optimum conditions and multiwall carbon nanotubes were used in batch. The effect of variables such as pH, amount of adsorbent initial dye concentration and contact time on the efficacy of dye removal was studied. Finally, the adsorption isotherm of Janus Green dye onto the multiwalled carbon nanotubes were investigated based on Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin models. The diagrams were created by Sigma Plot 10 and descriptive statistics was performed by SPSS 18. Results: The results showed that removal efficiency increased until 0.02 gr adsorbent and 75 min contact time. The optimum pH for Janus Green removal was 7. Also the isotherm equations revealed that Janus Green dye adsorption onto multiwalled carbon nanotubes best fitted the Langmiur adsorption isotherm. Conclusions: The MWCNTs are effective and available adsorbents for removal of Janus Green from industrial wastewater.

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