Surface Properties of Halloysite-Carbon Nanocomposites and Their Application for Adsorption of Paracetamol

Analysis of surface properties of halloysite-carbon nanocomposites and non-modified halloysite was carried out with surface sensitive X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and inverse gas chromatography (IGC). The XPS spectra were measured in a wide range of the electron binding energy (survey spectra) and in the region of C 1s photoelectron peak (narrow scans). The IGC results show the changes of halloysite surface from basic for pure halloysite to acidic for carbon-halloysite nanocomposites. Halloysite-carbon nanocomposites were used as adsorbents of paracetamol from an aqueous solution. The adsorption mechanism was found to follow the pseudo-second-order and intra-particle diffusion models. The Langmuir multi-center adsorption model described well the obtained experimental data. The presence of carbon increased significantly the adsorption ability of halloysite-carbon nanocomposites for paracetamol in comparison to the non-modified halloysite.