Abstract
Abstract The application of fiber adsorbents in water treatment has recently received major attention due to its cost-effectiveness, good recyclability, and easy separation. Herein, we developed a novel strategy to prepare quaternary ammonium salt functionalized polyacrylonitrile fibers with a polarity tunable surface micro-environment to enhance the removal of wastewater phosphate. For this purpose, quaternized fibers with hydrophilic hydroxyl (PANT-C2-OHF) and hydrophobic alkyl with different chain lengths (PANT-C2F, PANT-C4F, PANT-C6F, and PANT-C8F) were constructed and characterized. Results of the adsorption experiment revealed that PANT-C2-OHF containing hydrophilic hydroxyl groups had the best adsorption capacity for phosphate (24.44 mg P g−1) within the adsorption equilibrium of 5 min. Furthermore, PANT-C2-OHF could effectively remove wastewater phosphate in a wide pH range (3–9), even in the presence of Cl-, CO32–, NO3–, etc. The adsorption kinetics and isotherms of PANT-C2-OHF for phosphate were better described by the pseudo-second kinetics and Langmuir isotherm models, indicating a monolayer chemical adsorption process. Besides, PANT-C2-OHF possessed excellent recyclability of at least 10 times and an extremely low adsorption limit for phosphate (0.02 mg P L-1) in actual wastewater. In brief, this study provides proof for PANT-C2-OHF as a new environmental adsorbent with high efficiency, selectivity, and reusability for removal and recovery of phosphate.
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