Cai Zengxiao, Remadevi Rechana, Al Faruque Md Abdullah, Setty Mohan, Fan Linpeng, Haque Abu Naser Md Ahsanul, Naebe Maryam
Deakin University, Institute for Frontier Materials Geelong Victoria 3216 Australia
RSC Adv. 2019 Oct 23;9(58):34076-34085. doi: 10.1039/c9ra04729h. eCollection 2019 Oct 18.
Dye wastewater has attracted much attention due to its severe environmental and health problems. The main challenge of separating dyes from wastewater, using adsorption, is developing a functional adsorbent that is cost-effective and sustainable. In this work, we have fabricated a novel low-cost membrane with antibacterial properties from naturally sustainable lemongrass (LG). Lemongrass was cut and milled into powder, then dissolved to prepare a lemongrass membrane. Graphene oxide (GO) was also included to prepare a LG/GO composite membrane. The physiochemical and antibacterial properties of membranes were evaluated and their dye adsorption capability was examined using methylene blue (MB) dye at different concentrations. The kinetic study revealed that the MB adsorption process complied with the pseudo second-order model. The lemongrass membrane showed a rough surface morphology, high reduced modulus and hardness, yet comparable dye adsorption to the LG/GO composite membrane. Considering the natural sustainability of lemongrass as an abundant cellulosic resource, its excellent dye adsorption, antibacterial properties and low cost as well as the facile fabrication technology, the lemongrass membrane could be a promising candidate for dye removal from wastewater with easy separation after use.
由于其严重的环境和健康问题，染料废水已引起广泛关注。利用吸附法从废水中分离染料的主要挑战在于开发一种具有成本效益且可持续的功能性吸附剂。在这项工作中，我们用天然可持续的柠檬草（LG）制备了一种具有抗菌性能的新型低成本膜。将柠檬草切割并研磨成粉末，然后溶解以制备柠檬草膜。还加入了氧化石墨烯（GO）以制备LG/GO复合膜。对膜的物理化学和抗菌性能进行了评估，并使用不同浓度的亚甲基蓝（MB）染料检测了它们的染料吸附能力。动力学研究表明，MB吸附过程符合准二级模型。柠檬草膜表面形态粗糙，具有较高的压缩模量和硬度，但其染料吸附能力与LG/GO复合膜相当。考虑到柠檬草作为一种丰富的纤维素资源具有天然可持续性、优异的染料吸附性能、抗菌性能、低成本以及简便的制备工艺，柠檬草膜有望成为一种用于从废水中去除染料且使用后易于分离的理想材料。
