Functioned hollow glass microsphere as a self-floating adsorbent: Rapid and high-efficient removal of anionic dye

Rapid, high-efficient adsorbents with efficient solid-liquid separation ability has broad application prospects in the treatment of dye wastewater. In this study, polydopamine and methacryloyloxyethyltrimethyl ammonium chloride were grafted onto hollow glass microspheres to prepare the enhanced polydopamine shell structure adsorbent with self-floating ability. Furthermore, the adsorbent achieves high-efficiency surface solid-liquid separation, which overcomes the disadvantages of the traditional separation methods. Characterizations of the as-synthesized microspheres were performed using various techniques such as SEM, EDS, BET, XPS, FT-IR, TGA and XRD. The adsorbent achieved rapid and high-efficient adsorption of alizarin cyanine green F via the interactions of electrostatic attracting and π-π stacking, and under the optimal experimental conditions, the removal efficiency of 0.10 m mol L−1 dye solution reaches 94.51%, and the adsorption process reaches equilibrium within 60 min. Adsorption isotherms and kinetics data of the adsorbent were well fitted by Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic models, respectively. The as-synthesized adsorbent has excellent recyclability, and its adsorption performance can be maintained after 5 cycles of reuse. The self-floating adsorbent has great potential for the removal of dissolved contaminants and cost-effective separation.