Abstract

High contamination of toxic heavy metals such as lead (Pb2+) and arsenic (As3+) in water is a major threat to human health and aquatic life. Recently, MXene has been applied as a promising platform for the adsorption of heavy metals. However, its composites have rarely been investigated for the removal of heavy metals yet. Herein, we have synthesized MXene/Carbon composite-based nanofibers (MXene/CNFs) membrane for efficient removal of Pb2+ and As3+ ions up to their permissible limits through an efficient adsorption study. The adsorption results were fit well with both the Langmuir and the pseudo-second-order models. The MXene/CNFs composite membrane showed high adsorption capability for Pb2+ (12.5 mg.g-1) and As3+ (3.3 mg.g-1) at an optimized neutral pH within 20 and 30 min respectively. The removal rates for Pb2+ and As3+ ions were achieved at 89% and 81% respectively which are much sufficient to treat contaminated water at low concentrations (10 µgL-1 to 10 mgL-1). Additionally, the MXene/CNFs composite membrane showed good recycling up to 4 cycles with removal efficiencies of both ions Pb2+ (77%) and As3+ (60%). As a result, the prepared MXene/CNFs membrane pave the way for an efficient, affordable, lightweight, and environmentally friendly route for the removal of lead and arsenic ions up to their permissible limit for drinking water.

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