Stable organic-inorganic hybrid of polyaniline/α-zirconium phosphate for efficient removal of organic pollutants in water environment

In this article, organic-inorganic hybrid materials of polyaniline/α-zirconium phosphate (PANI/α-ZrP) was synthesized by in situ oxidative polymerization reaction and characterized by Fourier transformed infrared (FTIR), field-emission scanning electron microscopic (FE-SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results showed that polyaniline (PANI) was successfully grown on the surface of α-zirconium phosphate (α-ZrP) nanoplates. The PANI/α-ZrP nanocomposites were further applied to remove methyl orange (MO), which was used as a model of organic pollutants in aqueous solution. A synergistic effect of PANI and α-ZrP on promoting the adsorption removal of MO was observed. The PANI/α-ZrP nanocomposites exhibited excellent maximum adsorption capacity toward MO (377.46 mg g(-1)), which is superior to that of PANI nanotubes (254.15 mg g(-1)) and much higher than that of many other adsorbents. The adsorption isotherms of MO can be well-fitted with the Langmuir model and the adsorption kinetics follows the pseudo-second-order model. MO adsorption decreased with increasing solution pH at pH4.0 implying that MO adsorption on PANI/α-ZrP may via electrostatic interactions between amine and imine groups on the surface of PANI/α-ZrP and MO molecules. This study implies that the hybrid materials of PANI/α-ZrP can be suggested as potential adsorbents to remove organic dyes from large volumes of aqueous solutions.