The utilization of a three-dimensional reduced graphene oxide and montmorillonite composite aerogel as a multifunctional agent for wastewater treatment

Abstract

Mankind has witnessed a dramatically growing challenge regarding water pollution during the past decades. Meanwhile, intensive attention has been paid to developing functional materials which can comprehensively treat wastewater which always includes bacteria, organic and inorganic contaminants. In this work, a reduced graphene oxide and montmorillonite composite (rGO–MMT) aerogel was synthesized by a one-step green method to treat multiple pollutants in wastewater. The Langmuir isotherm model and the pseudo-second-order kinetic model were well fitted to the adsorption of both dyes and heavy metal ions. The rGO–MMT aerogel exhibited 97.31% and 94.87% removal efficiencies for methylene blue (MB) and Cr(VI), respectively. In addition, the antibacterial ratios of the rGO–MMT loaded with quaternary ammonium salt reached 91.57% and 95.53% for E. coli and S. aureus, respectively. Our results demonstrated that the aerogel had a high multi-component adsorption capacity and antibacterial activity. Attractively, the rGO–MMT aerogel exhibited excellent recyclable properties thanks to its special three-dimensional structure with outstanding mechanical strength.