GO-SWCNT Buckypapers as an Enhanced Technology for Water Decontamination from Lead

Water decontamination is an important challenge resulting from the incorrect disposal of heavy metal waste into the environment. Among the different available techniques (e.g., filtration, coagulation, precipitation, and ion-exchange), adsorption is considered the cheapest and most effective procedure for the removal of water pollutants. In the last years, several materials have been tested for the removal of heavy metals from water, including metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), and graphene oxide (GO). Nevertheless, their powder consistency, which makes the recovery and reuse after adsorption difficult, is the main drawback for these materials. More recently, SWCNT buckypapers (SWCNT BPs) have been proposed as self-standing porous membranes for filtration and adsorption processes. In this paper, the adsorption capacity and selectivity of Pb2+ (both from neat solutions and in the presence of other interferents) by SWCNT BPs were evaluated as a function of the increasing amount of GO used in their preparation (GO-SWCNT buckypapers). The highest adsorption capacity, 479 +/- 25 mg g(-1), achieved for GO-SWCNT buckypapers with 75 wt.% of graphene oxide confirmed the effective application of such materials for cheap and fast water decontamination from lead.

Automated summary

Adsorption is considered the cheapest and most effective method for water decontamination. However, the powder consistency of existing materials is a major drawback. Recently, SWCNT buckypapers have been proposed as self-standing porous membranes for filtration and adsorption processes. In this study, the adsorption capacity and selectivity of GO-SWCNT buckypapers were evaluated, and their effective application for cheap and fast water decontamination from lead was confirmed.