Growth and optimization of carbon nanotubes in powder activated carbon for an efficient removal of methylene blue from aqueous solution

This work demonstrated the synthesis of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on powder activated carbon (PAC) impregnated with Ni-catalyst through chemical vapour deposition. The optimized effects of reaction temperature, time and feedstock flow rates on CNT growth were examined. Potassium permanganate (KMnO4) and potassium permanganate in acidic solution (KMnO4/H2SO4) were used to functionalize CNTs samples. A primary screening of methylene blue (MB) adsorption was conducted. The chemical, physical and morphological properties of the adsorbent with the highest removal efficiency were investigated using FESEM, EDX, TEM, BET surface area, RAMAN, TGA, FTIR, and zeta potential. The resulting carbon nanotube-loaded activated carbons possessed abundant pore structure and large surface area. The MB removal by the as-synthesized CNTs was more remarkable than that by the modified samples. Adsorption studies were carried out to evaluate the optimum conditions, kinetics and isotherms for MB adsorption process. The response surface methodology-central composite design (RSM-CCD) was used to optimize the adsorption process parameters, including pH, adsorbent dosage and contact time. The investigation of the adsorption behaviour demonstrated that the adsorption was well fitted with the pseudo-second-order model and Langmuir isotherm with the maximum monolayer adsorption capacity of 174.5 mg/g. Meanwhile, the adsorption of MB onto adsorbent was driven by the electrostatic attraction and pi-pi interaction. Moreover, the as-obtained CNT-PAC exhibited good reusability after four repeated operations. In view of these empirical findings, the low-cost CNT-PAC has potential for removal of MB from aqueous solution.