Mesoporous Mn-Doped Fe Nanoparticle-Modified Reduced Graphene Oxide for Ethyl Violet Elimination: Modeling and Optimization Using Artificial Intelligence

Mesoporous Mn-doped Fe nanoparticle-modified reduced graphene oxide (Mn-doped Fe/rGO) was prepared through a one-step co-precipitation method, which was then used to eliminate ethyl violet (EV) in wastewater. The prepared Mn-doped Fe/rGO was characterized by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, N-2-sorption, small angle X-ray diffraction and superconducting quantum interference device. The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller specific surface area of Mn-doped Fe/rGO composites was 104.088 m(2)/g. The EV elimination by Mn-doped Fe/rGO was modeled and optimized by artificial intelligence (AI) models (i.e., radial basis function network, random forest, artificial neural network genetic algorithm (ANN-GA) and particle swarm optimization). Among these AI models, ANN-GA is considered as the best model for predicting the removal efficiency of EV by Mn-doped Fe/rGO. The evaluation of variables shows that dosage gives the maximum importance to Mn-doped Fe/rGO removal of EV. The experimental data were fitted to kinetics and adsorption isotherm models. The results indicated that the process of EV removal by Mn-doped Fe/rGO obeyed the pseudo-second-order kinetics model and Langmuir isotherm, and the maximum adsorption capacity was 1000.00 mg/g. This study provides a possibility for synthesis of Mn-doped Fe/rGO by co-precipitation as an excellent material for EV removal from the aqueous phase.