Adsorptive Performance of Composite of Sugarcane Bagasse Fibres and Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes for Simultaneous Removal of Multi–pollutants from Wastewaters

This paper reports on the performance of the prepared Sugarcane Bagasse Fibres – Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes (SBF–MWCNTs) composite for simultaneous removal of Crystal Violet (CV), Pb(II), Cr(III), Cd(II) and Co(II) from the effluent using a fixed bed method. Different composites of SBF–MWCNTs biosorbent were prepared from mixtures of varied ratios of SBF and MWCNTs at 25 °C. The SBF–MWCNTs materials were characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. Crystallinity index and swelling behaviour of the materials were also determined. Thomas model linear equation was applied in the assessment of pollutants adsorption performance at different conditions. With a column height of 8 cm containing 1.5 g of SBF–MWCNTs, flow rate of 2.5 mL min-1, pH > 6, and pollutant initial concentrations of ≤25 mg/L, the SBF–MWCNTs composite containing 2% MWCNTs had higher pollutants adsorption capacity (mg/L), 6.61 ± 0.092 Pb(II), 4.78 ± 0.132 CV, 4.58 ± 0.080 Cr(III), 4.09 ± 0.181 Cd(II), 2.98 ± 0.230 Co(II). Whereas, that of unmodified fibres (SBF) were 5.53 ± 0.056 Pb(II), 4.48 ± 0.091 CV, 3.77 ± 0.072 Cr(III), 3.41 ± 0.050 Cd(II) and 2.42 ± 0.031 Co(II). Statistical analysis at 0.05 significance level has shown that adsorption capacity of each contaminant by the SBF–MWCNTs is significantly higher than that of SBF. These results indicate that SBF–MWCNTs composite is a potential biosorbent for the removal of multi–pollutants from aqueous systems. Keywords: Wastewater treatment; Multi–pollutants; Carbon nanotubes; Sugarcane bagasse; Fixed bed