Study on synthesis of paraffin wax derived graphene metal oxide nano composites and application in basic dye removal from water

Abstract

Toxic effluents from various industries like textiles, metal finishing, pharmaceuticals, pulp and paper, petroleum and petrochemical industries are posing pollution. Especially effluents from pigment and dyes and also textiles contain various types of synthetic dyes, which pollute the water bodies. These industries consume large amounts of water during their process and for completion of products. Synthetic dyes used in these industries are highly toxic and cannot be treated by ordinary purification methods. Sorption has been found to a better method, more advantageous than other effluent treatment methods. It is cheap and economical process to treat dyeing and textile industry effluents. In recent years many natural and synthetic materials have been investigated to assess their suitability and ability to be used as sorbent. Graphene and graphene oxide and their metal oxide nanocomposites are more suitable and can be used as sorbent in sewage and effluent treatments. In this present study, the precursors selected for the preparation of graphene nanocomposites are paraffin wax and acetates of cobalt and nickel. The paraffin wax is a by-product of petroleum distillation. Paraffin waxes are mixtures of n- and iso- alkanes, naphthenes, and alkyl- and naphthenesubstituted aromatic compounds. The chemical composition of a typical alkane paraffin wax comprises hydrocarbons with the general formula CnH2n+2, such as hentriacontane, C31H64, branched hydrocarbons and naphthenic hydrocarbons of boiling point less than 185 and#8451;Graphene impregnated metal oxide nanocomposites were prepared by pyrolysis of paraffin wax using nickel acetate and cobalt acetate and stored in desiccator for XRD, SEM, TEM, FTIR, VSM and Raman spectroscopy characterization. The SEM images of the graphene metal oxide nanocomposites showed a stack of spheres with the size of 51 nm, and corresponding EDAX spectrum shows more percentage of carbon. FTIR spectral studies were carried out for all nanocomposites and the presence of functionalities was confirmed.