Adsorption-photocatalysis performance of polyaniline/dicarboxyl acid cellulose@graphene oxide for dye removal.

A novel 3-D biopolymer-based adsorption-photocatalytic composite, polyaniline/dicarboxyl acid cellulose@graphene oxide was synthesized and was employed to remove the reactive brilliant red K-2G from aqueous solution. The addition of dicarboxyl acid cellulose could improve the morphology, structure, stability and dispersity of the nanocomposite, thus providing excellent adsorption and photocatalysis performance to the product. Batch of experiments were conducted in two scenarios: adsorption followed by photocatalysis process and simultaneous adsorption-photocatalysis process. For the first scenario, adsorption equilibrium can be reached within 25 min, the expected adsorption capacity was 447.0 mg·g-1; the subsequent photocatalysis process was carried out under light irradiation and the removal capacity could further improve to 729.0 mg·g-1 under equilibrium state (about 180 min). For the simultaneous adsorption-photocatalytic process, the removal capacity was about 558.1 mg·g-1 at about 25 min and the total removal capacity could reach to 733.3 mg·g-1 under equilibrium state. PANI-DCC@GO exhibited excellent reusability and had potential in the treatment of dyes polluted wastewater.