A Functionalized Silicate Adsorbent and Exploration of Its Adsorption Mechanism.

Hanzhi Lin,Yang Zhou,Xianming Xiao,Zulv Huang,Jian Huang,Bo Yan,Tao Chen

doi:10.3390/molecules25081820

Abstract

Active silicate materials have good adsorption and passivation effects on heavy metal pollutants. The experimental conditions for the preparation of active silicate heavy metal adsorbent (ASHMA) and the adsorption of Cu(II) by ASHMA were investigated. The optimum preparation conditions of ASHMA were as follows: 200 mesh quartz sand as the raw material, NaOH as an activating agent, NaOH/quartz sand = 0.45 (mass fraction), and calcination at 600 °C for 60 min. Under these conditions, the active silicon content of the adsorbent was 22.38% and the utilization efficiency of NaOH reached 89.11%. The adsorption mechanism of Cu(II) on the ASHMA was analyzed by the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models, which provided fits of 0.99 and 0.98, respectively. The separation coefficient (RL) and adsorption constant (n) showed that the adsorbent favored the adsorption of Cu(II), and the maximum adsorption capacity (Qmax) estimated by the Langmuir isotherm was higher than that of 300 mg/L. Furthermore, adsorption by ASHMA was a relatively rapid process, and adsorption equilibrium could be achieved in 1 min. The adsorbents were characterized by FT-IR and Raman spectroscopy. The results showed that the activating agent destroyed the crystal structure of the quartz sand under calcination, and formed Si-O-Na and Si-OH groups to realize activation. The experimental results revealed that the adsorption process involved the removal of Cu(II) by the formation of Si-O-Cu bonds on the surface of the adsorbent. The above results indicated that the adsorbent prepared from quartz sand had a good removal effect on Cu(II).

Highlights

With the rapid development of the economy and society in recent years, heavy metal pollution in waters and soils due to mining, smelting and combustion emissions is becoming an increasingly serious problem [1,2,3]
The effects of calcination temperature (T), ratio of NaOH to quartz sand (R), calcination time (t), quartz sand particle size (S) and impurities (I) on the preparation of the active silicate heavy metal adsorbents were studied by the controlled variable method
active silicate heavy metal adsorbent (ASHMA) was prepared by calcinating NaOH and quartz sand sifted to 200 mesh at a ratio of 0.45 at 600 ◦ C for 60 min

Summary

Introduction

With the rapid development of the economy and society in recent years, heavy metal pollution in waters and soils due to mining, smelting and combustion emissions is becoming an increasingly serious problem [1,2,3]. It will have a long-term impact unless the heavy metals are removed from the contaminated site. Studies have shown that the silanol groups (Si-OH) in active silicate materials are the main determinants of surface chemistry [10] and can form covalent bonds and hydrogen bonds with some ions and molecules [11]. Heavy metals such as Cu(II), Cd(II), and Pb(II) in aqueous solution were found to be removed by forming surface adsorption complexes with surface silanol [12,13]. The saturated adsorption capacities were 3.40, 2.83, 0.66 and 0.62 mmol/g, respectively [14]

Methods

Results

Conclusion