Fabrication of Pectin/Poly(vinyl alcohol)/Graphene oxide nanocomposite for effective removal of Methylene blue dye from aqueous solution: Kinetics and Isotherm study

We report a facile design and synthesis of Graphene oxide (GO) incorporated pectin/PVA nanocomposite (PPGO) by employing solution casting method.The fabricated nanocomposite was investigated by FT-IR, XRD, Raman, TEM, SEM and TGA-DSC. The potential of the prepared
nanocomposite for effective removal of methylene blue dye from aqueous solution was investigated by
performing a series of batch adsorption experiments to study the effect of adsorbent dosage, initial dye
concentration, contact time and pH. The adsorption was influenced by the pH of the medium, indicating
an electrostatic interaction between the adsorbent and MB molecules. The kinetics of adsorption
followed a pseudo-second order model. The equilibrium adsorption capacity was found out to be 162
mg L-1described by the Langmuir adsorption model. To evaluate the reuse of PPGO, desorption was
performed. Due to its good adsorption efficiency, PPGO may be a promising adsorbent for removal of
dye. Keywords: Graphene oxide, nanocomposite, adsorption, methylene blue.