Graphene oxide and hydroxyapatite-based composite extracted from fish scales: Synthesis, characterization and water treatment application

Abstract

In this study the removal of hydrocarbon pollutants from refinery waste water has been described through a convenient adsorption technique using a novel composite of graphene oxide (GO) and n-hydroxyapatite (n-HAp). The main aim was to synthesized composite which are not only sustainable and biodegradable but also exhibit high adsorption capacity and selectivity for hydrocarbon pollutants. Both the HAp and GO were synthesized from fish scales in the laboratory. The synthesized material was then characterized by XRD, FTIR, SEM, and EDX. At 40 °C and 80 min of reaction time, the adsorbent utilized in a batch mode study attained a maximum 97 % organic pollutant adsorption rate. The adsorption activity was spontaneous, exothermic, useful, and it adhered to the pseudo-2nd order kinetic model. without noticeably losing its activity, the adsorbent retained a high level of efficiency over four consecutive cycles. Adsorption of hydrocarbon wastes using composite adsorbent was carried out under batch mode of adsorption experiments. We also studied the effect of dose, temperature, time and pH of the solution on adsorption. Ethanol was used to regenerate the adsorbent, and it was then dried at 70 °C for re-use. The SEM investigation showed that the morphology of huge caves is rough, layered, and wrinkled. The oxygen and phosphate containing groups were found via FT-IR analysis. Freundlich and Langmuir kinetic models were used to measure the adsorption behavior by applying them to the adsorption data. The results demonstrated a strong correlation between the Freundlich isotherm model and the real data. This study showed a highly effective and cost-efficient methodology for the removal of toxic hydrocarbon contaminants in refinery wastewater.