Multi-walled carbon nanotubes as sorbent for recovery of endocrine disrupting compound-bisphenol F from wastewater

In this study, the removal and recovery of bisphenol F (BPF) by multi walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were investigated. MWCNT has shown the great potential as a kind of effective adsorbents for endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs)-BPF in wastewater treatment. The results indicated that the removal percentages of BPF could reach up to 96.2% within 4 min under pH 4-10. BPF adsorption kinetics was found to be very fast and the equilibrium was attained within 4.0 min following the pseudo-second-order model with observed rate constants (k) 0.707-3.175 g mg(-1) min(-1) (at varied temperatures). The adsorption mechanisms were the non-electrostatic dispersion interaction, hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic interaction between BPF and MWCNT and the overall rate process mainly governed by the external mass transfer. Most of the co-existing ions which were studied have negligible effect on the sorption BPF by MWCNT. Furthermore, MWCNT was of high stability in eight times removal-regeneration recycles. In summary, MWCNT is an excellent adsorbent which can be used for BPF removal in contaminated water treatment process. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.