Removal of acid black 1 dye by carbon nanotube-dendrimer composite: operation parameters, isotherms and kinetic

Organic dyes are the major pollutants produced in many industries and have different adverse effects on water resources. The aim of this study was to synthesize a novel adsorbent with high adsorption capacity and evaluate its efficiency in removing organic dyes from aqueous solutions in a batch system. This study was an applied research in which carbon nanotube composite-dendrimer was synthesized and its chemical properties was evaluated by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Acid blue 1 dye was selected as a model to evaluate the decolorization capacity of the adsorbent. The effects of the parameters influencing the adsorption process such as initial dye concentration, adsorbent dose, pH and the effect of inorganic salts were also studied. Longmuir and Freundlich isotherm models and pseudo first order and pseudo-second-order kinetic models were used for data evaluation. In this study removal of acid black 1 dye by carbon nanotube-dendrimer composite followed the Longmuir and Freundlich isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic models. We also found that the synthesized adsorbent had a maximum adsorbent capacity equal to 690 mg/g, when the concentration of dye was 100 mg/l. We concluded that carbon nanotube composites – dendrimer can be used as an effective adsorbent for removal of dyes form colored effluents.