Biocomposite fiber of calcium alginate/multi-walled carbon nanotubes with enhanced adsorption properties for ionic dyes

A bioadsorbent of calcium alginate/multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CA/MWCNTs) composite fiber was fabricated by wet spinning and was characterized. Adsorptions of methylene blue (MB) and methyl orange (MO) ionic dyes onto CA/MWCNT composite fibers were investigated with different MWCNTs content and pH values. The results showed that introduction of MWCNTs of CA/MWCNTs composite fiber could not only sharply increase the adsorption capacity of MO onto bioadsorbent by 3 times, but enhanced the adsorption rate for MB compared to that of native CA fiber. Adsorption kinetics was determined by fitting pseudo-first, second-order and the intra-particle diffusion models to the experimental data, with the second-order model providing the best description of MB and MO adsorption onto CA/MWCNT fibers. The equilibrium adsorption data were analyzed by two widely applied isotherms: Langmuir and Freundlich. The desorption experiments showed the percentage of desorption were found to be 79.7% and 80.2% for MB and MO, respectively. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.