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    					Bimetallic reduced graphene oxide/zeolitic imidazolate framework hybrid aerogels for efficient heavy metals removal  | 
  					 
  					  										
						Nurul A. Mazlan, Allana Lewis, Fraz Saeed Butt, Rajakumari Krishnamoorthi, Siyu Chen, Yi Huang( ) | 
					 
															
						| School of Engineering, Institute for Materials & Processes, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FB, UK | 
					 
										
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													     		                            						                            																	    Abstract  Graphene oxide is a promising adsorption material. However, it has been difficult to recycle and separate graphene oxide in the solution. To alleviate this problem, graphene oxide was thermally reduced to produce porous hydrogel which was then functionalized with polydopamine. The functional groups act as not only adsorption sites but also nucleation sites for in situ crystallization of cobalt-doped zeolitic-imidazolate-framework-8 nano-adsorbents. The effects of cobalt-doping contents on the physicochemical and adsorption properties of the resulting aerogel were also evaluated by varying the cobalt concentration. For instance, the reduced graphene oxide-polydopamine/50cobalt-zeolitic-imidazolate-framework-8 aerogel exhibited a high surface area of 900 m2·g–1 and maintained the structure in water after ten days. The as-synthesized aerogels showed an ultrahigh adsorption capacity of 1217 ± 24.35 mg·g–1 with a removal efficiency of > 99% of lead, as well as excellent adsorption performance toward other heavy metals, such as copper and cadmium with adsorption capacity of 1163 ± 34.91 and 1059 ± 31.77 mg·g–1, respectively. More importantly, the lead adsorption stabilized at 1023 ± 20.5 mg·g–1 with a removal efficiency of > 80% after seven cycles, indicating their potential in heavy metal removal from industrial wastewater. 
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															| Keywords 
																																																				rGO  
																		  																																				Co-doped ZIF-8  
																		  																																				heavy metals  
																		  																																				adsorption  
																		  																																				aerogel  
																																			  
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																																Corresponding Author(s):
																Yi Huang   
																													     		
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																															Just Accepted Date: 09 April 2024  
																																																													Issue Date: 27 May 2024
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