ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Fabrication of carbon nanotubes coated electrode to remove pharmaceutical pollutant in treated effluent

Akshatha Gangadhar, Abhilash Mavinakere Ramesh, Dhananjay Purushotham, and Srikantaswamy Shivanna

Department of Studies in Environmental Science, University of Mysore, Mysore, India

E-mail: srikantas@hotmail.com

Received: 23 June 2022  Accepted: 18 February 2023

Abstract:

The rising number of new contaminants in the environment continues to raise deep concern. Pollutant removal from wastewaters has always been critical for maintaining the quality of the available water resources. Carbon-based nanomaterials have received special attention due to their large specific surface area and associated adsorption sites, carbon nanotubes (CNT) have attracted in environmental remediation, particularly in wastewater treatment. In this regards, disposal of pharmaceutical wastewater is given greater consideration, and appropriate steps are taken to ensure safety. CNT have been successfully used to remove the pharmaceutical pollutant by electrochemical treatment. CNT are prepared using the chemical vapor deposition method and are coated on anode electrodes. Synthesis of the Carbon nanotubes were characterized by different advanced analytic techniques represents the presence of 1.09–3.89 nm of the particle size with 12.9 mV of zeta potential. High resolution XPS spectra of C 1 s gives one peak situated at 284.68 eV equivalent to C–C bond and for O 1 s can be expanded into two peaks located at 529.4 eV and 531.44 eV which are related to lattice oxygen and oxygen vacancies. The Raman spectrum of CNT shows the ID/IG ratio as 0.85, which demonstrate clearly the purity of product. Statistical analysis of variance (ANOVA) has carried to confirm the efficiency. Three independent variables like pH, voltage, and Dosage are selected and the R² value obtained have been ranged from 0.6 to 0.8. Response surface methodology is adapted to achieve high efficiency of CNT. As a result, after conventional waste water treatment CNT efficiently removed pharmaceutical pollutants in waste water, and further analysis revealed that pollutant removal ranged from 83.0 to 91.5%.

Graphical abstract

Keywords: Chemical vapor deposition; CNT-based electrode; Electrochemical treatment; Statistical analysis of variance

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1007/s11696-023-02747-x

Chemical Papers 77 (7) 3855–3866 (2023)