Sustainable Synthesis of MOF-5@GO Nanocomposites for Efficient Removal of Rhodamine B from Water

Herein, a metal–organic framework (MOF-5) is synthesized by a solvothermal process and graphene oxide (GO) is prepared from the improved Hummer’s method. The synthesis of MOF-5@GO nanocomposites is one-pot process via a grinding method and employed for the removal of Rhodamine B (RhB) dye. The removal efficiency of RhB is found to be 60.64% (151.62 mg·g–1) at 500 ppm. About 98.88% of RhB is removed within 5 min of contact time and increased up to 99.68% up to 10 min. The removal rate of MOF-5@GO nanocomposites is much better than that of pristine MOF-5. Equilibrium adsorption capacity is determined by a series of different experimental conditions such as pH, time, and concentration of dye solution. Although the results also showed that dye removal on MOF-5@GO nanocomposites is well described by the Langmuir isotherm (R 2 = 0.9703), the adsorption kinetics data reveals pseudo-second-order (R 2 = 0.9908). The synthesized nanocomposite is efficient for removal of dye, cost-effective, and reusable. Additionally, stability and self-degradation studies of pure RhB are reported in aqueous solution for up to 120 days at different pH values (pH 1–12).