Adsorption of methyl green dye onto multi-walled carbon nanotubes decorated with Ni nanoferrite

This research was carried out to evaluate the capability of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and NiFe2O4-decorated multi-walled carbon nanotubes (NiFe2O4-CNTs) toward waste water treatment relevant to organic dyes. CNTs were prepared via chemical vapor deposition method. NiFe2O4-CNTs were prepared by in-situ chemical precipitation of metal hydroxides followed by hydrothermal processing. The samples were characterized using XRD and TEM. The adsorption efficiency of CNTs and NiFe2O4-CNTs of methyl green dye at various temperatures was examined. The adsorbed amount increased with the CNTs and NiFe2O4-CNTs dosage. The linear correlation coefficients and standard deviations of Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms were determined. It was found that Langmuir isotherm fitted the experimental results well in both adsorption cases n of methyl green onto CNTs and NiFe2O4-CNTs. Kinetics analyses were conducted using pseudo first-order, second-order and the intraparticle diffusion models. The results showed that the adsorption kinetics was controlled by a pseudo second-order model for adsorption of methyl green onto CNTs and best controlled by pseudo first-order in case of NiFe2O4-CNTs. Changes in the free energy of adsorption (ΔG°), enthalpy (ΔH°), entropy (ΔS°), and the activation energy (E a) were determined. The ΔH°, ΔG° and E a values indicated that the adsorption of methyl green onto MWCNTs and NiFe2O4-MWCNTs was physisorption.