Hydrophobic and Magnetic Reduced Graphene Oxide Nanocomposite for Emulsified Oil Removal

Magnetic reduced graphene oxide (MRGO) nanocomposite was prepared by the chemical coprecipitation method and applied as adsorbent for removing emulsified oil from oily wastewater. SEM, TEM, XRD, FT-IR, VSM and other analytical methods were utilized to characterize the prepared MRGO. The adsorption performance of MRGO was evaluated under different initial adsorbate concentration, MRGO dosage, temperature, and pH value of the solution. The adsorption kinetics and isotherms were investigated. In addition, the MRGO repeatability was also tested. It was found that almost 65% of emulsified oil were removed by MRGO in the first 15 min. The MRGO adsorption capacity and efficiency for removal of adsorbate reached 335.85 mg/g and 92.52% within 60 min, respectively. The adsorption capacity reduced with an increasing MRGO dosage, while increased with the increase of emulsified oil concentration. The adsorption performance of MRGO in the alkaline environment was lower than that in the acidic environment. The adsorption data could well fit to the pseudosecond-order model. The Langmuir model could well describe the isotherm data. The MRGO adsorption capacity was still more than 236.1 mg/g at the sixth regeneration cycle.