Abstract

This paper presents a comprehensive study on the synthesis and characterization of a novel composite material composed of metakaolin (MK), cellulose nanofibers (CNF), graphene oxide (GO), and zinc oxide (ZnO) for the efficient removal of heavy metals from wastewater. The main objective of this research was to enhance the removal efficiency of Cu(II) and Mn(II) ions in a binary system using a fixed bed column adsorption technique while investigating the effect of impregnating the nanomaterials. The synthesized samples were subjected to a thorough characterization using various techniques. These analyses provided insights into the structural properties and morphology of the composite material. The adsorption performance of the MK/CNF/GO/ZnO composite was evaluated through breakthrough curve analysis and kinetic modeling. The MDR model provided good fits with R² values of 0.962 and 0.967 for Cu(II) and Mn(II) respectively. Based on the experimental breakthrough curve data, the saturation and breakthrough capacities of the composite material were calculated to be 5.97 mg/g and 4.84 mg/g for Cu(II) and Mn(II) respectively, achieved after a saturation time of 102 min for Cu(II) and 128 min for Mn(II). The results demonstrated a synergistic effect between GO and CNF, resulting in enhanced adsorption efficiency. The incorporation of ZnO nanoparticles further improved the adsorption capacity due to their high surface area, providing additional active sites for adsorption. The results showed that combining CNF, GO, and ZnO in a composite resulted in extended breakthrough and exhaustion times compared to the combination of CNF and GO alone.