Adsorption of atrazine by natural organic matter and surfactant dispersed carbon nanotubes

The aggregation and dispersion behaviors of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) can regulate the environmental spread and fate of CNTs, as well as the organic pollutants adsorbed onto them. In this study, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) and single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) were surface modified with humic acids from different sources and with surfactants of different ionic types. The dispersion stability of surface modified CNTs was observed by UV-Vis spectrophotometry. The effect of humic acid and surfactant dispersion on the adsorption of atrazine by CNTs was investigated by batch equilibrium experiments. Both humic acid and surfactant could effectively disperse MWNTs, but not SWNTs, into stable suspensions under the studied conditions. Surface modified CNTs had a greatly reduced capacity for adsorption of atrazine. The inhibitory effect of peat humic acid was relatively stronger than that of soil humic acid, but the two surfactants had a similar inhibitory effect on atrazine adsorption by the two CNT types. Increases in surfactant concentration resulted in rapid decreases in the adsorption of atrazine by CNTs when the surfactant concentration was less than 0.5 critical micelle concentration.