I want to remove dye from wastewater using graphene oxide Nanoparticle. I faced few issues while doing batch experiments. Please help me out. I'm new to nanotech field. So kindly help me to figure out how to overcome these difficulties.
1. I synthesized graphene oxide nanoparticle. I got it in the form of sheet not like particles. I tried mortar and pestle to grind it. But no significant result. Shall I use it like sheets to do batch experiments or do I need to grind it. If yes please suggest some way to do.
2. I have limited supply of distilled water. So I tired doing experiments using minimum quantity of distilled water in centrifuge tube. I place those tubes in shaker. But unfortunately nanoparticles didn't disperse well. Is this is because the nanoparticle is in like sheet form or due to using minimum quantity of water in shaker instrument. Please tell me whether this is a stupid idea or not.
I know this sounds pretty stupid. But please help me in doing experiments in correct way.
Thanks
Deepthi
You cannot use shaker alone for dispersion of GO. You may use bath or probe sonicator for dispersion of GO in your solvent. Eventhough it is well documented that GO is dispersible in water, you still need strong shearing forces from sonication for well dispersion of GO in water.
As per the responses of Zulhelmi Ismail and Mohamed Bayati , you will struggle to create good and reproducible dispersions using a shaker. I would also suggest using an ultrasonic bath to provide agitation in order to form your dispersion.
As for preparing a powder, you could look for a product like the IKA "Tube Drive":
https://www.ika.com/en/Products-Lab-Eq/Dispersers-Homogenizer-csp-177/ULTRA-TURRAX-Tube-Drive-P-control-Workstation-cpdt-25005836/
What is your density in mg.mL-1? In our laboratory we perform a lot of work preparing dispersions with nanostructures, including CNTs and GO/rGO, we typically use 1 mg.mL-1 as a starting point. For H2O you may need to move to lower densities to improve the quality of the dispersions.
In terms of the production of your NPs for wastewater, once you have your dispersion, what are you doing with them? For instance, are you then dropcasting them and allowing them to dry to form solid materials? In such as case, you could look to use a solvent such as NMP or DMF.
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