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International Conference on

Recent Trends in Environmental Sustainability

ESCON22/ETERM/04
Removal of Cr and Pb from contaminated water by chloroacetic acid functionalized
graphene oxide

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Humera Aziz , Sana Farooq , Shafaqat Ali , Muhammad Rizwan
1 Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Government College University
Faisalabad, Pakistan
Correspondence: humeraaziz.uaf@gmail.com; humeraaziz@gcuf.edu.pk
Abstract

Heavy metals pollution in water is a global problem. They are very toxic water pollutants
because they tend to bio-accumulate and cause severe side effects in living organisms. Many
nanocomposits have been used for the removal of heavy metals from water. Graphene and its
derivatives attracted great attention in these days as an adsorbent for heavy metals removal
from water. Graphene oxide is an effective adsorbent because of its functional groups, large
surface area and being strong hydrophilic. We produced functionalized graphene oxide through
its modification with chloroacetic acid in the presence of base. The modified nanosheets were
characterized by X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD) to determine crystallinity and
amorphous characteristics, Scanning Electron Spectroscopy (SEM) for structural analysis,
Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) for functional group analysis. A batch
experiment was conducted to check the sorption of heavy metals (Pb and Cr) using modified
graphene oxide as a sorbent. The sorption capacity of the prepared sorbent sheets was evaluated
using Freundlich and Langmuir models after batch experiment. We achieved 90-94 % sorption
capacity for both heavy metals. In conclusion, the modified graphene oxide proved an efficient
sorbent for removing Pb and Cr from contaminated water and could be implied for effective
wastewater treatment.

Keywords: Heavy metals, pollution; graphene oxide; Functionalization; remediation;
wastewater

Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Vehari Campus

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