Selectivity and extraction efficiency studies of 4-nitrophenol adsorption on polyethersulfones/Ag nanocomposite

In this study, the effectiveness of newly synthesized polyethersulfones/Ag nanocomposites films, as adsorbents, was evaluated for selective separation of 4-nitrophenol from environmental waters. Three polyethersulfones/Ag nanocomposites films were prepared by varying amounts of incorporated Ag nanoparticles. The selectivity of nanocomposites films was investigated toward three mono-substituted phenolic compounds, including 4-nitrophenol, 4-chlorophenol and 4-methoxyphenol. Based on selectivity study results, 4-nitrophenol was the most quantitatively adsorbed on NC3 thin film (20% v/v), indicating that NC3 thin film was the most selective toward 4-nitrophenol among other compounds. In addition, effects of pH value, initial concentration and contact time on the 4-nitrophenol adsorption by NC3 thin film were examined, in order to optimize adsorption process conditions. The experimental adsorption isotherm data were modelled by classical adsorption isotherms which revealed the high agreement of the Langmuir model with adsorption capacity of 105.93 mg g(-1). This result demonstrated that the adsorption system was mainly mono-layer on the homogeneous surface of NC3 adsorbent, which supported the validity of Langmuir sorption isotherm model. Data acquired from kinetic models study indicated that the adsorption of 4-nitrphenol onto the NC3 film followed a pseudo-second-order model. Finally, validation of this method has attained reasonable results for the determination of 4-nitrophenol into real water samples.