Impregnation of GO with Cu2+ for enhancement of aniline adsorption and antibacterial activity

In this work, Cu2+-binded graphene oxide (Cu2+-GO) as a modified form of GO was prepared and characterized using FTIR, XRD, SEM, EDX and TEM techniques. The modified GO showed an increased antibacterial activity based on its minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) against several bacterial strains. It exhibited a high capacity for adsorption of Aniline as compared to pristine GO with almost no adsorption. Maximum adsorption of Aniline by Cu2+-GO was observed at neutral pH range. The results of kinetic studies revealed that the process of Aniline adsorption is rather fast and follows a pseudo-second-order rate model. The adsorption isotherm data were fitted well to non-linear form of the Langmuir model with maximum adsorption capacity (qm) of 79.3 mg/g. A mechanism of chemisorption was proposed for removal of Aniline by Cu2+-GO based on the experimental results. An acceptable performance of selectivity was observed for Aniline adsorption by Cu2+-GO in the presence of higher concentrations of natural waters common anions. It also showed a desired performance for adsorptive removal of Aniline from a simulated real sample of polluted water. The results of this study exhibited that Cu2+-GO can be used for practical purposes such as water treatment plants and drinking water disinfection filters.