Adsorption of Sb (III) on oxidized exfoliated graphite nanoplatelets

Abstract

In this work, Sb (III) adsorption on oxidized exfoliated graphite nanoplatelets (ox-xGnP) was evaluated for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. The ox-xGnP were characterized by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Brunauer–Emmet–Teller (BET) analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) equipped with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and Zeta potential analysis. The adsorption parameters, such as pH and contact time, were optimized, and the best adsorption capacity obtained was 8.91 mg g−1 at pH = 7.0, 1.0 mg ox-xGnP/100 mL solution, T = 293 K, 1.0 mg L−1, Sb (III), 25 min contact time. The best correlation of the kinetic data was described by a pseudo-first-order kinetic model, with R2 = 0.999. The adsorption isotherms of Sb (III) onto ox-xGnP were best described by the Langmuir isotherm model. The thermodynamic parameters showed that the adsorption process was exothermic and spontaneous.