Activated Carbon/Zeolite Hybrid Nanocomposite for Drinking Water Treatment Applications: Structural, Optical, and Surface Adsorption Properties

In this paper, synthesis and physical properties of activated carbon modified with zeolite as hybrid nanocomposites have been studied for drinking water treatment applications. To study structural and chemical absorption characteristics, samples of activated carbon/zeolite nanocomposite with different concentrations were synthesized including the following: four sample-based activated carbon/zeolite nanocomposite with 20, 40, 60, and 80 percent zeolite and four samples-based zeolite nanocomposites with 20, 40, 60, and 80 percent activated carbon. The physical properties of the nanocomposites have been characterized by XRD, FESEM, UV-Vis spectroscopy, BET, hardness, and total dissolved solids (TDS) measurements. The study of structural properties by X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed the existence of the crystalline phase of zeolite and the porous activated carbon. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) images clearly show the porosity and the presence of pores in composites. The optical absorption coefficient and band gap were studied by UV-Vis spectroscopy. The bandgap calculation showed that the addition of zeolite to activated carbon-based nanocomposite leads to increasing the bandgap (1.98 eV to 2.36 eV) and with addition of activated carbon in zeolite-based composites, the bandgap is decreased (2.23 eV to 2.19 eV). By effective surface area (BET) analysis, the hole diameter changes from 16 to 50 nm. For nanocomposites of activated carbon/zeolite, deletion of NaCl and ionic pollutants from Caspian seawater and non-drinkable water of Damghan desert region in Iran were tested. The measurement of point zero charge (PZC) experiments and adsorption capacity (qe) showed satisfactory results from the separation of Na+ and Cl- ions and the decrease in hardness of salty water and ion conductivity of the samples of seawater and non-drinkable water of desert up to 70%.