The excellent adsorption performance of layered double hydroxides (LDHs) toward heavy metals (HMs) had been demonstrated. The carbonate contamination was one of the inherent problems for LDHs whether during the synthesis or application procedure, which significantly affected the adsorption performance of LDHs toward HMs. However, a few studies investigated the mutual effect and mechanism between HMs on LDHs with carbonate interference, especially for the coexistence system of cationic and anionic HMs. In this study, cadmium (Cd) and arsenate (As) were selected as typical cationic and anionic HMs to study the influences of carbonates on their adsorption performance on LDHs. The carbonate intercalated LDHs (CLDH) promoted Cd adsorption but inhibited As adsorption in single system. The adsorption capacity of Cd increased by ∼ 50 % while As adsorption decreased by half. CdCO3 precipitation contributed to ∼ 40 % of the adsorbed Cd whereas weaker electrostatic adsorption inhibited As adsorption due to lower surface zeta potentials of CLDH than LDH. In contrast, both adsorption capacities and rates of Cd and As on CLDH were promoted in binary system (the co-existence of Cd and As) compared with single system. The surface potentials of CLDH turned from positive to negative with As rapid occupation, facilitating Cd entrance into the interlayers. And then the opening of the interlayer space and rearrangement of CLDH enhanced CdCO3 precipitation and isomorphic substitution. With the increase of surface zeta potentials and rearrangement of CLDH, in turn, the adsorption of As was promoted via electrostatic adsorption (∼65 %) and surface complexation (∼35 %). The adsorption capacity of Cd increased by ∼ 15 % whereas As adsorption decreased by half with increasing pH from 4 to 9 in binary system. In contrast, temperature (15–35 ℃) had negligible influence on the adsorption of CLDH toward Cd and As. Herein, this study illustrated the influence mechanism of carbonate intercalation on the simultaneous immobilization of Cd and As on LDHs, providing an understanding for fates of Cd and As with LDHs in more realistic scenes.
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