Removal of organic dyes using nano graphene exfoliated from waste batteries

Abstract

Waste batteries (AA and AAA models) discarded as domestic and municipal wastes are a significant concern to our environment. Parts of the battery can be recycled or reused, thereby reducing the pollution due to the disposal. This study uses the graphite electrodes inside the waste batteries to synthesize graphene. Many harmful dyes like methylene blue (MB), brilliant blue (BB), malachite green (MG), and rose bengal (RB) are majorly used in textile industries which cause abnormalities (loss of coordination, inducing cancer, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, carcinogenesis, mutagenesis, intrinsic cytotoxic effects) in humans and also the ecosystem around us. Removal of such non-biodegradable dyes, which is of prime importance to our society, is investigated in this research work with the synthesized graphene. newlineSolution-based exfoliation methodology is used to exfoliate the graphene from the graphite rods by varying the electrolytes and are named G1 to G9. Various parameters have been optimized to exfoliate graphene effectively. 1M electrolyte concentration yield maximum graphene when experimentations have been carried out with electrolytic concentration between 0.1M to 1M. It has been observed that the sulfate-based electrolytes exfoliate graphene more efficiently when compared with other electrolytes while MgSO4 was more effective among the sulfate electrolytes used. On studying the parameters like pH, temperature, and bias voltage, it was found that effective exfoliation took place at 7.2 pH, 80ºC, and 10V, respectively. newline newline