Removal of Pb(II) Ion from Aqueous Solution Using As-synthesized CuO/Cu2O Nanocomposites

In this paper, the spherical CuO/Cu2O nanocomposites were synthesized using co-precipitation accompanied by annealing at 500 and 600 ºC. The as-synthesized CuO/Cu2O nanocomposites were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The XRD and FT-IR results predicts the successfully synthesized of CuO/Cu2O nanocomposite. Spherical shapes of samples confirmed by TEM images with narrow particle size distribution. The average size of nanocomposites synthesized at 600 °C (39 nm) is smaller than the nanocomposites synthesized at 500 °C (46 nm). In addition, the samples were chemically activated using H2O2 and used as new adsorbents to remove of Pb(II) ion from aqueous solution. The effect of solution pH, sorbent dose, initial Pb(II) concentration and the contact time were studied and showed that the highest efficiency (85% for nanocomposites synthesized at 500°C and 92% for nanocomposites synthesized at 600 °C) is obtained at pH 6, 90 min contact time, 30 ppm Pb(II) solution and 0.02 g of sorbent. The Pb(II) adsorption equilibrium data are best fitted to the Langmuir model.