Influence of metal oxides on the adsorption characteristics of PPy/metal oxides for Methylene Blue

In this paper, the pure PPy and PPy/metal oxide composites including PPy/SiO2, PPy/Al2O3, and PPy/Fe3O4 as well as PPy coated commercial SiO2 and Al2O3 (PPy/SiO2(C) and PPy/Al2O3(C)) were successfully synthetized via chemical oxidative polymerization in acid aqueous medium to investigate the influence of metal oxides on adsorption capacity and their adsorption characteristics for Methylene Blue (MB). The composites were characterized by Zeta potential analysis, BET analysis, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results indicate that the metal oxides have great impact on textural properties, morphology, Zeta potential and PPy polymerization on their surface, further influence the adsorption capacity of their composites. The PPy/Al2O3(C) composite owns the highest specific surface area, rougher surface and most PPy content, and show the highest monolayer adsorption capacity reaching 134.77mg/g. In the adsorption characteristic studies, isotherm investigation shows an affinity order of PPy/metal oxides of PPy/Al2O3(C)>PPy/Al2O3>PPy/SiO2(C)>PPy/SiO2>PPy/Fe3O4>PPy, stating the affinity between PPy and MB was greatly improved by metal oxide, and Al2O3 owns high affinity for MB, followed by SiO2 and Fe3O4. Kinetic data of the composites selected (PPy/SiO2(C), PPy/Al2O3(C) and PPy/Fe3O4) were described more appropriately by the pseudo-second-order model, and the order of K2 is PPy/Al2O3>PPy/SiO2>PPy/Fe3O4, further showing a fast adsorption and good affinity of PPy/Al2O3(C) for MB. The regeneration method by HCl-elution and NaOH-activation was available, and the composites selected still owned good adsorption and desorption efficiency after six adsorption-desorption cycles.