New Composites LnBDC@AC and CB[6]@AC: From Design toward Selective Adsorption of Methylene Blue or Methyl Orange

PLoS One. 2017 Jan 20;12(1):e0170026. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0170026. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

New porous composites LnBDC@AC (AC = Activated carbon, Ln = Eu and Gd and BDC = 1,4-benzenedicaboxylate) and CB[6]@AC (CB[6] = Cucurbit[6]uril) were obtained using hydrothermal route. The LnBDC and CB[B] are located inside the pore of the carbon materials as was observed in SEM-EDS, XRPD and FT-IR analysis. Porosimetry analysis showed values typically between AC and LnBDC material, with pore size and surface area, respectively, 29,56 Å and 353.98 m2g-1 for LnBDC@AC and 35,53 Å and 353.98 m2g-1 for CB[6]@AC. Both materials showed good absorptive capacity of metil orange (MO) and methylene blue (MB) with selectivity as a function of pH. For acid pH, both materials present selectivity by MB and alkaline pH for MO, with notable performance for CB[6]@AC. Additionally, europium luminescence was used as structural probe to investigate the coordination environment of Eu3+ ions in the EuBDC@AC composite after adsorption experiment.

MeSH terms

  • Adsorption
  • Azo Compounds / chemistry*
  • Methylene Blue / chemistry*
  • Microscopy, Electron, Scanning
  • Porosity
  • Powder Diffraction
  • Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared
  • Surface Properties

Substances

  • Azo Compounds
  • methyl orange
  • Methylene Blue

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Development Agency for Research-CNPq. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.