Research Information System
Surfaces and Interfaces, vol.72, 2025 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
Industrial pollutants, including synthetic dyes, significantly impact water resources. These synthetic dyes posing a high risk to the ecosystem. Therefore, their removal is one of the fundamental task of humanity. Effective purification of single and multiple dyes containing solutions is a challenge due to the diversity of dye molecules in terms of physical and chemical properties. We developed a carbon nanotube based column filtration system to remove anionic and cationic dyes in water separately and simultaneously with very high removing rates. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) decorated with carboxyl groups, anionic and cationic surfactants were fabricated and used in column filtration system. Methylene blue (MB) and acid orange 7 (AO7) were used as model dyes, while sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and cetrimonium bromide (CTAB) were functionalized as surfactants on the sidewall of CNTs. The column filter containing different surfactant combinations was able to remove 120 mL of 100 ppm MB, 100 ppm AO7 and 200 ppm of the dye mixture solutions with 99.99% performance. Single dye removal was found highly pH dependent while multi-dye removal performance of the column filtration system was independent of pH. The surfactant functionalized CNT column filter, with an advanced dye removal efficiency, offers surface-engineered solution for complex water purification in wide pH ranges.