Preparation of nanocomposite activated carbon nanofiber/manganese oxide and its adsorptive performance toward leads (II) from aqueous solution

Abstract

Herein this study, nanocomposite activated carbon nanofibers embedded with MnO2 (called as ACNFs/MnO2) were prepared by carbonization and activation of electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers for the removal of lead(II) ions from aqueous solution. The prepared ACNFs/MnO2 were characterized by their physicochemical properties and adsorptive behaviour towards lead(II) ions. SEM images showed that ACNFs/MnO2 possessed more compact structures with a smaller average fiber diameter (433.7 nm) as compared to ACNFs without MnO2 incorporation (called neat ACNFs hereafter with fiber diameter of 669.0 nm). EDX analysis revealed successful incorporation of MnO2 nanoparticles within the fibres. The specific surface area (SSA) of the ACNFs/MNO2 (599.4 m2/g) is higher than the SSA of neat ACNFs (478.2 m2/g). FTIR spectra of ACNF/MnO2 indicated the presence of MnO2 at peak 548 cm-1. Batch adsorption study showed that the optimum pH for maximum adsorption of lead(II) was at range 5.0 and isotherm study revealed that lead(II) adsorption on ACNFs/MnO is best fitted by Freundlich model with maximum adsorption of 120.3 mg/g. This nanocomposite carbonaceous material can be another promising sorbent material for heavy metals removal from water/wastewater.