A New Type of Activated Carbon Fibre Supported Titanate Nanotubes for High-Capacity Adsorption and Degradation of Methylene Blue

Publication date: Available online 10 July 2018Source: Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering AspectsAuthor(s): Qingrong Wang, Xiaoman Lei, Fei Pan, Dongsheng Xia, Yuji Shang, Weiliang Sun, Wen LiuABSTRACTA novel composite material which is referred to as activated carbon fibre supported titanate nanotubes (TNTs@ACF) was used for the removal of methylene blue (MB) from water through the combined adsorption and photocatalysis. TNTs@ACF was synthesized through a one-step hydrothermal method, which was composed of the activated carbon fibre as the skeleton and supported titanate nanotubes. TNTs@ACF showed a large surface area of 540.7 m2/g, thus, facilitating adsorption and interaction with MB. TNTs@ACF could first pre-concentrate MB molecules onto the material and then degrade under UV light irradiation. The first-order model simplified from the Langmuir-Hinshelwood (L-H) model can well describe the photodegradation of MB on TNTs@ACF. Moreover, TNTs@ACF could be reused without significant capacity loss by UV light photo-regenerated. The structure and morphology of TNTs@ACF were indicated by TEM, SEM, and EDS, and it is found that TNTs were highly dispersed on the surface of ACF. XRD, FTIR, and XPS analyses of TNTs@ACF before and after the MB photodegradation also indicated the stability of the material. The combined adsorption and photodegradation suggests that TNTs@ACF is an attractive material for maintainable remediation of organic pollution in the enviro...
Source: Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects - Category: Chemistry Source Type: research