Fast and considerable adsorption of methylene blue dye onto graphene oxide.

The quite efficient adsorption of methylene blue dye from an aqueous solution by graphene oxide was studied. The favorable electrostatic attraction is the main interaction between methylene blue and graphene oxide. As graphene oxide has the special nanostructural properties and negatively charged surface, the positively charged methylene blue molecules can be easily adsorbed on it. In the aqueous solution of methylene blue at 293 K, the adsorption data could be fitted by the Langmuir equation with a maximum adsorption amount of 1.939 mg/mg and a Langmuir adsorption equilibrium constant of 18.486 mL/mg. The adsorption amount increased with the increase of the solution pH (3-11), was not affected significantly by KCl under the examined condition and the adsorption process was exothermic in nature. The fast and considerable adsorption of graphene oxide could be regarded as a potential adsorbent for cationic dye removal in wastewater treatment process.