Fabrication of titanium phosphate@graphene oxide nanocomposite and its super performance on Eu3+ recycling

Abstract

Despite its significant potential as an adsorbent, graphene oxide (GO) is still not widely used mainly because of the difficulties in redispersing after drying. To break the strong forces between GO layers and improve adsorption ability, a titanium phosphate (TiP) modified GO composite was fabricated in this work. Hierarchically structured GO@TiP composites (GTiP) were synthesized via a mild in situ chemical precipitation method. The products were thoroughly characterized by various methods such as SEM, TEM, XRD, XPS and BET. This new material was then applied as an adsorbent for Eu³⁺ in water. GTiP exhibited excellent adsorption characteristics for europium ions. It took shorter than 1.5 min to reach half-equilibrium, while its adsorption capacity can be as high as 64.33 mg g⁻¹. GTiP also shows considerable adsorption ability both in a wide range of pH and salinity. The excellent adsorption capability of GTiP may have been derived from both materials in which GO increased the specific surface area and adsorption capacity, while TiP enhanced hydrophilicity and mechanical properties of GTiP.