Adsorptive removal of dye from real textile wastewater using graphene oxide produced via modifications of hummers method

This work focused on producing different graphene oxide (GO) samples for further application in the adsorptive removal of dyes from real textile wastewater. Among all conditions tested, the sample produced using KMnO4 and no sonication bath exhibited the best performance. Before the experiments using wastewater, kinetics and equilibrium of adsorption studies were performed with Methylene Blue (MB) dye. Experimental data showed the isotherm fitted the Freundlich model, and kinetic results fitted the pseudo-second order model. Theoretical q(max) was 308.11 mg.g(-1) and over 90% removal of MB was reached in approximately 5 min. Although GO has been widely applied to remove cationic and anionic dyes from water, not many studies have presented GO as an adsorbent for real textile wastewater treatment. In 30 min, GO removed nearly 85% of turbidity and over 60% of color from a real sample, indicating that GO might be an excellent alternative to treat textile wastewater.