Synthesis of bimetallic/carbon nanocomposite and its application for phenol removal

Abstract: The research study goes through the development of Al/Mn impregnated multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and its use in the adsorption of phenol from aqueous solution. The Al/Mn decorated CNTs (CAM) were characterized by different characterization techniques such as BET, XRD, SEM-EDX, TGA and Raman spectroscopy to study the porosity, mineralogy, surface texture, and thermal attributes of prepared adsorbent. The application of synthesized adsorbent for phenol removal was proved to be superior as compared to its raw counterpart for all experimental runs. The kinetics of adsorption process was followed by pseudo-second order model. The regression results of equilibrium data showed that the Sip’s isotherm model best fitted to experimental data. Thermodynamic analysis of phenol adsorption suggested that the pollutant removal process is feasible and exothermic in nature. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.].