Synthesis of silver sulfide modified carbon materials for adsorptive removal of dibenzothiophene in n-hexane

Carbon nanotube (CNT) and graphene oxide (GO) as common nanostructures were modified with silver sulfide (Ag₂S) using chemical vapor deposition. The raw and modified materials were tested for the removal of Dibenzothiophene (DBT) from a model fuel in batch mode adsorption experiments. The maximum adsorption capacities of DBT were 52.18 and 49.65 mg g⁻¹, using CNT-Ag₂S and GO-Ag₂S, respectively. The adsorption isotherm was modeled using Freundlich, Langmuir and Temkin models using linear and non-linear regression. The squared correlation coefficient (R²) and HYBRID error function were used to determine the best adsorption model. IR spectroscopy was used to study the DBT adsorption mechanism, and it was found that the DBT molecules lie flat on the surface of the developed adsorbents. Significant improvement was achieved in the adsorption of DBT using CNT-Ag2S and GO-Ag₂S, where the maximum adsorption capacity increased by 127% and 117% respectively, which indicates a stronger interaction between DBT and the modified adsorbents.