The Study of Adsorption Process of Pb Ions Using Well-Aligned Arrays of ZnO Nanotubes as a Sorbent

Well-structured ZnO nanotubes are obtained by a self-selective etching method with lowering temperatures of growth during the hydrothermal process.

The structural and optical properties of the obtained nanostructures are investigated by various conventional methods.

The goal of the research is to compare the efficiency of ZnO nanotubes to that of ZnO nanorods during lead adsorption process from aqueous solution and demonstrate that hollow nanostructures are more effective than solid nanostructures of the same morphology due to their larger effective surface.

Both nanotubes and nanorods are obtained under similar growth conditions: neither growth solution composition, nor concentration is changed. ZnO morphology is switched only by changing temperature during the growth process.

The measurements are carried out to assess the efficiency of the adsorption per unit weight of ZnO nanorod and nanotube capacity of static adsorption.