Hydrothermal synthesis of mesoporous TiO2 nanotubes and their adsorption affinity toward Basic Violet 2

Hydrothermal method was used to synthesize TiO2 nanotubes (TNTs), which are considered as a novel adsorbent with high surface area and adsorption capacity. Different methods including X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis were used to investigate and identify synthesized TNTs. The adsorption capacity of TNTs was investigated with regard to removing Basic Violet 2 (BV2) as a model organic pollutant from aqueous solution. The mean outer, inner diameter and thickness of the TNTs were found to be approximately 9, 4 and 2.5 nm, respectively. BET–BJH method was used for measuring specific surface area and pore volume of the TNTs which turned out to be 200.38 m2 g−1 and 0.44 cm3 g−1, respectively. The results of the study indicated synthesized TNTs may be considered as efficient and effective adsorbent for removing BV2 (75.63%) from aqueous solution. The impact of the operational variables, i.e. initial BV2 concentration (2–20 mg L−1), dosage of adsorbent (0.01–0.6 g), and pH (2–8) in relation to the adsorption capacity of BV2 onto TNTs were investigated. The experimental results of the study were meticulously taken into consideration for discussing and analyzing the adsorption isotherms and kinetics. It was found that the collected experimental data regarding the kinetic and isotherm examinations were compatible and well-matched with the pseudo-first order kinetic model and Langmuir isotherm model (R2 = 0.9634).