Removal of toxic Cr(VI) by UV-active functionalized graphene oxide for water purification

Extraction of hazardous heavy metals like As, Hg, Cd, Cr(VI), etc. for water purification is a great challenge. Exploiting the large surface area of graphene, in the present work, we have synthesized a UV-active 2,6-diamino pyridine-reduced graphene oxide (DAP-RGO) composite to remove Cr(VI) from acidic water solution. Here, the presence of an extra pyridinic-nitrogen lone pair facilitates the removal efficiency of excess Cr(VI) [500 mg L-1 in 3 h only] over reported results so far. In addition to that, the unique advantage of this UV-active material is the enhancement of removal efficiency by 18% at a higher pH value. We believe that this study will bring forth a new class of UV-active graphene based adsorbents with remarkably high removal efficiency for toxic heavy metals from waste-water in future.