HEMATITE NANOPARTICLES-EMBEDDED ACTIVATED CARBON FOR ENHANCING REMOVAL OF POLLUTANTS FROM WASTEWATER

All kinds of heavy metal ions and synthetic dyes in water will produce serious environmental problems and damage to the human body. Activated carbon (AC)/hematite (H; [Formula: see text]-Fe2O3) nanocomposites (ACH nanocomposites) have been prepared using a hydrothermal method in ferric citric alkaline solution. The microstructure, chemical composition and properties of as-prepared ACH nanocomposites were investigated, respectively. It has been proved that [Formula: see text]-Fe2O3 nanoparticles embedded on the surface of AC greatly improved the hydrophilicity of AC. Results further showed that ACH nanocomposites could be used as adsorbents to effectively remove [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] from wastewater. The sorption process for [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] ions met the pseudo-second-order equation. The maximum adsorption capacities of [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] by ACH were about 20 mg/g and 21 mg/g, respectively. In addition, some organic dyes such as methylene blue (MB) and rhodamine B (RhB) could also be degraded completely by ACH composites. Therefore, it is expected that ACH nanocomposites can be regarded as promising adsorbents and low-cost Fenton-like nanocomposites for the removal of pollutants from aqueous solution.