Carbon-doped graphitic carbon nitride as environment-benign adsorbent for methylene blue adsorption: Kinetics, isotherm and thermodynamics study

A novel, carbon-doped graphitic carbon nitride (C-C3N4-20) was used for methylene blue (MB) removal from an aqueous solution. In dye adsorption experiments, C-C-3-N-4-20 showed a high MB adsorption efficiency due to its extended pi-conjugation system and porous structure, the maximum adsorption capacity of C-C3N4-20 for MB was 57.87 mg g(-1), when the initial concentrations of MB were 20 mg L-1. A Langmuir model fit the MB adsorption isotherm of CC3N4-20, and a pseudo-second-order kinetic model fit the adsorption kinetics. The MB adsorption process on CC3N4-20 is physical and mainly via electrostatic attraction and pi-pi interactions. (C) 2018 Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.