Converting waste polystyrene foam into new value‐added materials: A large‐capacity scavenger to remove cationic dyes and heavy metals

Abstract

AbstractWaste white foam, toxic dyes, and metal ions are difficult to degrade in the ecological environment, posing a serious threat to human health and natural beauty, it is of great significance to design a functional material to jointly solve these problems. This study provided a facile approach to convert waste polystyrene foam into a new acid anhydride modified polystyrene adsorbent (PS‐MA) for the dyes and heavy metals removal from aqueous solution. The as‐obtained absorbent was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetry, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, Brunauer Emmett Teller method, and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Influencing factors are including, pH, dye concentration, contact time and temperature on the adsorption of methylene blue (MB), safranine T (ST), and Cu(II) were systematically studied. Boehm titration showed that the content of surface carboxyl groups reached 4.53 mmol/g. The maximum adsorption capacity had reached 1405.37 mg/g for MB, 2269.33 mg/g for ST, 65.03 mg/g for Cu(II). Moreover, the kinetic data were in good agreement with the pseudo‐second‐order model and closed to adsorption equilibrium at 20 min. After five times of recycling experiments and the application of mixed dye wastewater with salinity, PS‐MA showed excellent stability and removal ability. Abundant efforts revealed a broad application prospect of PS‐MA materials in water remediation.