Adsorption of aromatic hydrocarbons from water using metal oxide impregnated carbon nanotubes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9988286-B2
Application number	US-201514842351-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 1, 2015
Priority date	Sep 1, 2015
Publication date	Jun 5, 2018
Grant date	Jun 5, 2018

Abstract

Methods and nanocomposites for the adsorptive removal of aromatic hydrocarbons such as benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene and xylene from contaminated water sources and systems are provided. The nanocomposites contain carbon nanotubes and metal oxide nanoparticles such as Al 2 O 3 , Fe 2 O 3 and ZnO impregnated on a surface and/or in pore spaces of the carbon nanotubes. Methods of preparing and characterizing the nanocomposite adsorbents are also provided.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for removing an aromatic hydrocarbon from an aqueous solution, comprising;
contacting a nanocomposite comprising multi walled carbon nanotubes having an average outer diameter of 10-20 nm and an average inner diameter of 1-10 nm and metal oxide nanoparticles with the aqueous solution to adsorb the aromatic hydrocarbon from the aqueous solution,
wherein the metal oxide nanoparticles are impregnated on an outer surface and/or in pore spaces of the multi walled carbon nanotubes,
wherein the metal oxide nanoparticles are at least one selected from the group consisting of aluminum oxide, zinc oxide and iron oxide, and
wherein the aromatic hydrocarbon is at least one selected from the group consisting of benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene and xylene.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the multi walled carbon nanotubes are present in the nanocomposite in at least 85% by weight relative to the total weight of the nanocomposite and the metal oxide nanoparticles are present in the nanocomposite in up to 15% by weight relative to the total weight of the nanocomposite.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the metal oxide nanoparticles have an average particle size of 1-50 nm.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the nanocomposite has a BET surface area of at least 100 m 2 /g.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising agitating the aqueous solution at a speed of 50-350 rpm during the contacting.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least 25% of the total mass of the aromatic hydrocarbon is removed from the aqueous solution.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein up to 90% of the total mass of the aromatic hydrocarbon is removed from the aqueous solution.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the contacting is carried out for a time of up to 5 hours.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the nanocomposite is effective at removing at least 25% of the total mass of at least one aromatic hydrocarbon from the aqueous solution in a dosage of 10-200 mg per 1 ppm of aromatic hydrocarbon.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the contacting increases the adsorption of the aromatic hydrocarbon compared to substantially the same method performed under substantially the same operating conditions without the metal oxide nanoparticles.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the total mass of the aromatic hydrocarbon removed increases 10-40% compared to substantially the same method performed under substantially the same operating conditions without metal oxide nanoparticles.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the metal oxide nanoparticles are impregnated on the outer surface of the multi walled carbon nanotubes.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the multi walled carbon nanotubes lack any surface functionalization with oxygenated functional groups.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the oxygenated functional groups are alcoholic or carboxylic functional groups.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the metal oxide nanoparticles are impregnated on the outer surface of the multi walled carbon nanotubes, and wherein the multi walled carbon nanotubes lack any surface functionalization with oxygenated functional groups.

Assignees

• Univ King Fahd Pet & Minerals

Inventors

• Atieh Muataz Ali
• Abbas Aamir
• Abussaud Basim Ahmed

Classifications

• B01J20/28061

  being in the range 100-500 m2/g · CPC title

• B01J20/205

  Carbon nanostructures, e.g. nanotubes, nanohorns, nanocones, nanoballs (carbon nanotubes per se C01B32/15) · CPC title

• C02F1/281

  using inorganic sorbents · CPC title

• C02F1/288 Primary

  using composite sorbents, e.g. coated, impregnated, multi-layered · CPC title

• C02F2101/322

  Volatile compounds, e.g. benzene · CPC title