High-efficiency adsorption of methylene blue dye from wastewater by a thiosemicarbazide functionalized graphene oxide composite

With the aim of developing an improved adsorbent material for the treatment of printing and dyeing wastewater, we prepared a novel thiosemicarbazide functionalized graphene oxide (GO-TSC-GO) adsorbent by condensation reaction of the thiosemicarbazide amino group with the graphene oxide carboxyl group. This material was characterized by SEM, XPS , FTIR , Raman, XRD , UV–Vis, TGA , and BET then used to conduct adsorption experiments on simulated printing and dyeing wastewater containing methylene blue (MB). We investigated the effects of temperature, time, pH, salt ionic strength , initial MB solution solubility, and the activation and regeneration of the adsorbent on adsorption performance. The adsorption behavior was consistent with the pseudo-second-order adsorption kinetic model and the Langmuir adsorption isotherm model. Thermodynamic analysis indicated an exothermic chemical adsorption reaction. In addition, the GO-TSC-GO exhibited excellent reusability . The maximum adsorption capacity of GO was 196.8 mg/g whereas the maximum adsorption capacity of GO-TSC-GO was 596.642 mg/g, verifying that the GO-TSC-GO composite has important applications for the treatment of printing and dyeing wastewater.