Fabrication and characterization of carbon nanotubes for oily wastewater treatment applications

ABSTRACT

The oil processing industry creates severe environmental pollution by generating considerable volume of contaminated water. Realization of a sustainable and cost-effective water treatment technique has become a top priority. Nanotechnology is an emerging field and has great potential in bioremediation and environmental pollution control. Therefore, this study aimed to fabricate carbon nanotubes (CNT’s) for the treatment of oily wastewater. The CNT’s were analyzed using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Zeta potential measurement and Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX). The CNTs were successfully employed in the batch treatment of oily wastewater by varying the processing parameters (i.e. effluent pH, speed of agitation, agitation time and quantity of CNTs) and the optimal treatment parameters were established. The wastewater treatment efficiency was assessed by recording the turbidity, chemical oxygen demand (COD), dissolved oxygen (DO), total suspended solids (TSS), and total dissolved solids (TDS) values of the wastewater before and after treatment. The optimized parameters are pH = 6.0, contact time = 60 min, agitation speed = 75 rpm and amount of CNT’s = 0.2 g/L. The results of the study validate the successful preparation of CNTs, as evidenced by the significant characteristic peaks observed through the FTIR spectrum and XRD analysis. The microstructural features of the CNT’s using SEM demonstrate the successful synthesis. The EDX spectra confirmed the excellent purity and elemental composition of CNT’s. The experimental outcomes suggest that the synthesized CNT’s could effectively remove pollutants from oily wastewater. Due to the exceptional surface area and tunable physical and chemical properties of carbon nanotubes have demonstrated its potential to eliminate toxic pollutants from oily wastewater..