Removal Of Toxic Heavy Metals Research Articles

Synthesis of Floral-Shaped Nanosilica from Coal Fly Ash and Its Application for the Remediation of Heavy Metals from Fly Ash Aqueous Solutions

Every year a large amount of coal fly ash (CFA) is generated and dumped in fly ash ponds. Fly ash has numerous toxic heavy metals, which leads to water pollution due to the percolation of these heavy metals. Heavy metal toxicity has become a major issue for the whole globe. Moreover, CFA has several value-added minerals, such as silica, alumina, and ferrous in large amounts. Therefore, the synthesis of silica nanoparticles from CFA and their application for the removal of toxic heavy metals from fly ash aqueous solution will prove to be an economical and efficient approach. Here, in the present research work, investigators synthesized nanosilica from CFA by alkali dissolution and sol-gel methods and applied them for heavy metal removal. Firstly, CFA was treated with high molar NaOH, along with stirring and heating. Further, the sodium silicate leachate from CFA was treated with dilute HCl till the formation of a white gel at neutral pH. Purification of the nanosilica was achieved by treating with 1M HCl along with stirring followed by calcination at 400 °C for 4 h. The synthesized nanosilica was characterized by UV-Vis, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), particle size analyzer (PSA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), electron diffraction spectroscopy (EDS), and high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HR-TEM). The sizes of the floral-shaped nanosilica particles were 20–70 nm, and the purity was 90–95%, as confirmed by microscopy and EDS, respectively. The XRD and FTIR revealed the amorphous nature of nanosilica. Finally, the potential of the nanosilica was assessed for the removal of heavy metals from 20% CFA aqueous solutions in batch experiments. The nanosilica showed about 40–90% removal of heavy metals (Al, Pb, Cd, Cu, Cr, Ni, Co, Zn, Mn) from the fly ash aqueous solution.

Synergistic effects of multifunctional nanostructured WO3-WS2 decorated on polypyrrole (WO3-WS2/PPy) for the removal of toxic heavy metals from wastewaters and high supercapacitor performance

Nowadays, developing a simple, economic, and scalable approach for environmental remediation and producing energy storage devices remains challenging. Herein, we report a novel WO3–WS2 decorated polypyrrole (WO3–WS2/PPy) nanocomposite for the removal of heavy metals, i.e., Cd(II) and Ni(II) and high-performance supercapacitor electrodes.The WO3–WS2/PPy showed significant improvement in the removal of Cd(II) (95.33%) and Ni(II) (89.95%), while WO3–WS2 and PPy revealed removal efficiency of 87.02 and 77.01% for Cd(II) and 82.97 and 74.66% for Ni(II), respectively. For the competitive adsorption experiment, Cu2+/Zn2+ causes a significant influence, while Na+/K+/Mg2+/Ca2+ exerted less effect on the adsorption of the aforementioned metal ions. The WO3–WS2/PPy exhibited higher selectivity toward Cd2+ than Ni2+. Along with, the WO3–WS2 decorated PPy based electrode showed a high specific surface area and support conductive networks, which synergistically improved charge storage capability. The WO3-WS2/PPy-based electrodes exhibit superior electrochemical performance with excellent rate capability, offering the high specific capacitance value of 624 F/g at 3 A/g current density and retaining capacitance stability of 81% after 5000 cycles in 1 M Na2SO4 electrolyte solution. The outcomes of this research infer that WO3-WS2/PPy is a promising candidate for wastewater treatment and high-performance energy storage applications.

A review on nanomaterial-based heterogeneous photocatalysts for removal of contaminants from water

The rising concentration of pollutants in the environment due to partially treated or untreated wastewater entering the surface waters has seriously challenged the integrity of the ecosystem and the quality of water for human health. Therefore, it is crucial to establish a productive and economical process to degrade recalcitrant pollutants from various water matrices owing to the ineffectual removal of these contaminants by conventional treatment methods. In this regard, advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), especially photocatalysis, have gained much attention due to their unique properties, such as low-cost, easy synthesis, and ability to produce reactive radicals under light irradiation with complete mineralization of recalcitrant pollutants. In this review, heterogenous photocatalysts, their fundamental properties, and their working mechanism have been described, along with their applications in the degradation of contaminants in water. Recent progress on pristine and modified nanomaterial-based photocatalysts for the degradation of various pollutants in water has been discussed. In particular, the removal of toxic heavy metals, pesticides, dyes, pathogens, pharmaceuticals, and other miscellaneous contaminants from water using a wide variety of nanomaterial-based heterogeneous photocatalysts has been summarized. The effect of temperature, solution pH, and loading of photocatalysts was found to be the most critical factors influencing the photocatalytic degradation of pollutants. Subsequently, the photocatalyst immobilization process using various support materials including carbon-based materials, glass, zeolites, and polymers in designing the efficient photocatalysts and future perspectives have been outlined.

Critical Assessment of Polyaniline-based Biocomposites for Removal of Toxic Heavy Metals from Aqueous Media

Polyaniline (PANI) is useful for the adsorption of hazardous substances because of its multiple N-containing functional groups, high adsorption capacity, superior selectivity and chemical durability. Although it is cheap and easy to synthesize, PANI has low processability and mechanical strength, which can be overcome by preparing composites of PANI with biomass waste. Biomass waste is a rich source of useful biopolymers, judicious use of which can also solve the problem of biomass-waste management. Furthermore, biomass waste provides excellent support and possesses functional groups, which help to synergistically remove potentially toxic elements (PTEs) from wastewaters. Composites of PANI have shown tremendous potential in the removal of PTEs from wastewaters. More recently, the focus of studies have been on PANI-based inorganic composites. Considering the environmental impact of these materials, use of PANI-based biosorbents would be more economical, environmentally friendly and promising. This review discusses the mechanisms of removal of PTEs by PANI biocomposites, factors affecting adsorption, characteristics and role of different biomass materials in the removal of PTEs, their advantages and limitations. This article also discusses the potential use of waste microbial biomass-polyaniline composites, which has not been fully explored thoroughly. The vast potential for future research has also been acknowledged, though much more study is needed before this method can be used to its full potential.

Removal of Heavy Metals from Industrial Wastewater using Low-Cost Waste Materials

The most serious environmental problem in the world is heavy metal pollution due to industrialization and urbanization. A special concern is to be taken for the removal of heavy metals in the environment. In developing countries, the price effectiveness might be a major factor in the removal of heavy metal toxicity which is a major threat to the environment for several decades. In this study, heavy metal contamination of water bodies has been reviewed here. The toxic effluents from the textile industry, shredding facilities, glass industry, metal industry, refinery, automobile industry, pharmaceutical industry, semiconductor industry, printing industry, catering industry landfill leakage contain a huge amount of heavy metals in their waste. The conventional methods are very expensive, energy-intensive and sometimes generate a toxic byproduct. The current review focuses on the adsorption technique of heavy metals removal using different adsorbent materials from waste naturally. Numerous low-cost adsorbents are widely used such as garlic peel, jack fruit peel, oil palm trunk fiber, rice bran and wheat bran, broad bean peel, groundnut shell, raw agricultural solid waste, papaya seeds, leaf biomass etc. explored for the removal of toxic heavy metal from wastewater. These absorbents materials naturally have their origin by themselves such as zeolites, clay, sphagnum moss and polysaccharide which are found to be efficient agents for the removal of toxic metals like lead Cd, Zn, Cu, Ni, Hg, Cr, etc. Numerous agricultural wastes like rice husk, neem bark, black gram, waste tea-coffee, walnut-shell, coconut coir, coconut husk, bagasse etc., are widely used for the heavy metal removal in a sustainable nature.

2D-layered Bi-functional direct solid-Z-scheme heterogenous vanadium and oxygen doped graphitic carbon nitride single layered nanosheet catalysis for detection and photocatalytic removal of toxic heavy metal

In this Research, the “Get the two Mangoes with one stone” strategy was utilized to investigate the electrochemical detection and photocatalytic removal of mercury ions (Hg2+) using vanadium pentoxide doped graphitic carbon nitride (V2O5/gCN) nanosheets for the first time. The proposed materials can be better choice for environmental issues. In this research, a novel direct Z-scheme V2O5/gCN nanosheets were prepared through direct thermal decomposition techniques with the different (0.1–0.5 wt%) weight ratios of dopant materials. The prepared nanosheets physiochemical properties can be obtained through various characterizations techniques. Moreover, the prepared nanosheets exhibit an excellent electrochemical ability for the detection of Hg2+ ions with a limit of detection is 9.2 nM, linear range from 0.2 to 100 μM, and enormous sensitivity (9.9857 μA μM−1 cm−2), respectively. Furthermore, the higher photocatalytic removal efficiency was obtained in this optimized dopant (0.2 wt%) concentration of V2O5-doped gCN nanosheets. In addition, the complete removal was obtained within a short treatment time under the visible light irradiation. Furthermore, the target (Hg2+) ions removals are quantified by ICP-OES, and quantification values were found to be 2762 ppm and 101 ppm before and after treatments, respectively. Therefore, this research work will be beneficial for the design of direct Z-scheme photo-electrocatalytic systems for application in real-time detection and environmental remediation.

Selective and Chemical-Free Removal of Toxic Heavy Metal Cations from Water Using Shock Ion Extraction.

Electrochemical methods are known to have attractive features and capabilities when used for ion separations and water purification. In this study, we developed a new process called shock ion extraction (shock IX) for selective and chemical-free removal of toxic heavy metals from water. Shock IX is a hybrid process that combines shock electrodialysis (shock ED) and ion exchange using an ion exchange resin wafer (IERW), and this method can be thought of functionally as an electrochemically assisted variation of traditional ion exchange. In particular, shock IX exhibits greater ion removal and selectivity for longer periods of time, compared to the use of ion exchange alone. The use of an IERW in shock ED also increases multivalent ion selectivity, reduces energy consumption, and improves the hydrodynamics and scalability of the system.

Construction of Zeolite/Fe2ZnTiO6/graphene oxide multifunctional nanocomposite with high efficiency for photocatalytic removal of inorganic pollutants under visible irradiation

Nowadays, pollutants of toxic heavy metals (THMs), nitrate (NO3-), and carbon dioxide (CO2) are three types of important environmental pollutants that have become a global concern. In recent years, perovskite photocatalysts have created great development prospects in pollutants treatment of aqueous solutions, industrial wastewaters, and air. Herein, Zeolite/Fe2ZnTiO6 (FZTO) double perovskite/graphene oxide (GO) nanocomposite (NC) was prepared as a highly efficient multifunctional perovskite photocatalyst by the sol-gel method. The crystal structure, morphology, and composition of the synthesized nanocomposite were characterized by XRD, SEM, and EDX-Map analysis. Also, photocatalytic mechanisms of the Zeolite/Fe2ZnTiO6/graphene oxide nanocomposite were evaluated by PL, DRS, and UV–visible analysis. Photocatalytic activity of Zeolite/Fe2ZnTiO6/graphene oxide nanocomposite was evaluated for the removal of toxic heavy metals, nitrate, and carbon dioxide pollutants in experiment conditions including pH (1–9), the temperature (25–65 °C), stirring speed (100–500 rpm), retention time (1–6 h), photocatalyst dosage (0.25–1.5 g/l), pollutants concentration (5–120 mg L−1) and distance between the visible source and solution surface (5–20 cm). The UV–visible spectrums were shown the removal efficiency of 90% for toxic heavy metals in optimal conditions of pH;7, temperature; 25 °C, stirring speed; 200 rpm, retention time; 5h, photocatalyst dosage; 1 g/l, THMs concentration; 10 mg L−1, and distance between the light source and solution surface; 10 cm under visible light irradiation. Also, the highest degradation efficiency of NO3− pollutant from aqueous solution was determined at about 85% in optimized conditions of pH; 3, temperature; 25 °C, agitation rate; 200 rpm, reaction time; 5h, photocatalyst dosage; 1 g/l, NO3−concentration; 100 mg L−1, and distance between the surface of the solution and light source; 10 cm under visible light irradiation. Finally, conversion maximum of CO2 pollutant was obtained at about 80% in optimum conditions of pH; 3, temperature; 25 °C, mixing rate; 200 rpm, retention time; 5h, photocatalyst dosage; 1 g/l, CO2 concentration; 100 mg L−1, and distance between the solution surface and light source; 10 cm under visible light irradiation.

Biochar derived carbonaceous material for various environmental applications: Systematic review

Biochar is the solid material produced from the carbonization of organic feedstock biomass. This material has several unique characteristics such as greater carbon content, good electrical conductivity, high stability and large surface area, which can be applied in several research areas such as generation of power and wastewater treatment. In connection with this, recently, the investigations on biochar significantly focus on the removal of toxic heavy metals since the biochar material is easily available and environmentally friendly. According to an environmental analytical device, biochar-derived carbonaceous material has been additionally applied to the synthesis of an effective, sensitive, and low-cost electrochemical sensor. Biochar with an assessment of electrochemical properties has engaged with different redox reactions in water. In this survey, electrochemical ways of behaving of biochar in light of the electrochemical structures were analytically compiled as well as the impact from biomass sources and manufacturing process including carbonization strategies, pre-treatment/changed techniques. This review emphasizes the various synthesis methods of biochar form organic feedstock, properties and different modulations of biochar for the bioremediation of heavy metals. This review study emphasizes the utilization of biochar as sensing platform and supercapacitor for electrode fabrication in electrochemical biosensor to enhance the remediation of toxic contaminants from water streams and by switching the less ecological traditional materials. Brief information on the techniques employed for packaging biochar as carbon electrode is summarized. Scope in the aspect of environmental concern of biochar, future challenges and prospects are proposed in detail.

Using nano-magnesium oxide/bentonite composite for cadmium removal from industrial wastewater

Nowadays, the removal of toxic heavy metals from industrial wastewater is a long standing problem due to the industrial progress worldwide. This study mainly focused on the production of a novel nMgO-bentonite nanocomposite using sol–gel method to enhance Cd ions removal from industrial wastewater. The nMgO-bentonite nano-composite was characterized for structural morphology and presence of functional groups using SEM/EDS, XRD and FTIR analysis. Cadmium sorption equilibrium and kinetic data were well fitted to Langmuir and power function models respectively as confirmed by the highest R2 (0.965), and the lowest SE (38*10-6) values among other studied models. The Langmuir removal capacity of the nanocomposite is 200 mg/g which is 60 times greater than that of bentonite. Increased Cd sorption on nano-composite with increased temperature from 287 to 307K and the thermodynamic results revealed that Cd adsorption process was endothermic and spontaneous. The data also showed highly repetitive application of nano-composite during six cycles of adsorption/ desorption experiment. The final results pointed out that nMgO-bentonite nano-composite has great adsorption affinity for Cd and could potentially employ as a cost-effective, ecofriendly and efficient sorbent for Cd removal from contaminated wastewater.

Removal of toxic heavy metals using genetically engineered microbes: Molecular tools, risk assessment and management strategies

The direct release of industrial effluent into the water and other anthropogenic activities causes water pollution. Heavy metal ions are the primary contaminant in the industrial effluents which are exceptionally toxic at low concentrations, terribly disturb the endurance equilibrium of activities in the eco-system and be remarkably hazardous to human health. Different conventional treatment methodologies were utilized for the removal of toxic pollutants from the contaminated water which has several drawbacks such as cost-ineffective and lower efficiency. Recently, genetically modified micro-organisms (GMMs) stand-out for the removal of toxic heavy metals are viewed as an economically plausible and environmentally safe technique. GMMs are microorganisms whose genetic material has been changed utilizing genetic engineering techniques that exhibit enhanced removal efficiency in comparison with the other treatment methodologies. The present review comments the GMMs such as bacteria, algae and fungi and their potential for the removal of toxic heavy metals. This review provides current aspects of different advanced molecular tools which have been used to manipulate micro-organisms through genetic expression for the breakdown of metal compounds in polluted areas. The strategies, major limitations and challenges for genetic engineering of micro-organisms have been reviewed. The current review investigates the approaches working on utilizing genetically modified micro-organisms and effective removal techniques.

Biosorption of heavy metals from wastewater using Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a biosorbent: A mini review

Waste water is the primary source of most of the heavy metals like Cd, Cr (VI), Pb, As, Hg, Cu, Ni, Zn, etc. The recent implementation of bioremediation methods has drastically outsmarted all other methods in removal of toxic heavy metals from waste water. Several organisms in micro and macro scale are being used as biomaterials for biosorption of heavy metals. The aim of this review is to assess the credibility of Saccharomyces cerevisiae for biosorption of toxic heavy metals, which has large surface area and budded structure, porous cell wall, ability to undergo meiosis, metal specificity and potential genetic modifications. S. cerevisiae is inoculated with its culture media into contaminated water where biosorption of heavy metals occurs. The optimum temperature, pH and contact time for heavy metal biosorption as found from literatures are 20 °C to 30 °C, 5.0 to 7.0 and 60 min respectively. The maximum biosorption can range up to 99.5 %. Hence, waste water can be decontaminated from toxic heavy metals using biosorption by S. cerevisiae.

Bioremediation Trends on Mitigation of As(III), Cr(VI) and Organic Dyes From Aqueous Medium using Plant and Microbial Biomass: An Overview

Arsenic, chromium and organic dyes are the prominent carcinogenic agents, posing a serious health hazard. In current scenario, groundwater as well as surface water mostly contaminated by chemical complexes of As (III), Cr (VI) and organic dyes, these are leading hazardous threat to eco-system. Several mitigation techniques of As (III), Cr (VI) and organic dyes are available but efforts are going on to devise a novel method of removal of these toxicants. This review takes into account all the recent advances in the detoxification of contaminated water exploring removal mechanism by biosorption and bioaccumulation. The possibility of the removal of toxic heavy metals from an aqueous medium by plant and bacterial biomass has been discussed. Now a days, bioaccumulation and biosorption from plants and microbial sources has emerged as simple, effective and eco-friendly techniques for decontamination of these chemical compounds from water resources at very low cost. Many agricultural products and solid wastes have also been found suitable decontaminant of toxic heavy metals and dyes. A wide spectrum of medicinal and aromatic plants as well as aquatic plants available in abundance may also be utilized as potential remover of As (III), Cr (VI) and organic dyes. This article explained mechanism and application on detail aspects of bioremediation technology including conventional techniques with recent development. This review shows the trends and development of mitigation stretagies by bioremediation with latest updates.

Attenuation of Heavy Metals from Waste Oil-Based Drilling Mud using Locally Produced Coconut Shell-Based Activated Carbon

Most toxic Heavy Metals (HM) persist in oil-based mud and ecosystem for many decades after the application of mud for drilling oil and gas wells. This study assessed the attenuation of such heavy metals from waste oil-based mud using activated carbon produced locally. The oil-based mud analysed presented variable levels of Iron (Fe), Copper (Cu), Nickel (Ni), Potassium (K), Arsenic (As), Chromium (Cr), Manganese (Mn) and Zinc (Zn). Adsorption is a highly effective means of separation to remove a wide range of pollutants in waste streams. Coconut shell activated carbon (CS-AC) was locally produced to remove heavy metals from the waste oil-based mud to encourage value addition to waste. The adsorption data was fitted to Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm model using linear regression analysis. The data was more fitted to the Langmuir isotherm as indicated by the high goodness of fit values (R2). To reduce the heavy metal concentrations below threshold levels optimum CS-AC dosage required for Fe, Cu, Ni, K, As, Cr, Mn and Zn is 5 g/l of CS-AC for a contact time of 30 minutes. The characterization of the produced carbons shows good results comparable to other commercial activated carbons. CS-AC is a viable and economical product for the removal of toxic heavy metals from waste oil-based mud before disposal.

Adsorption behavior study and mechanism insights into novel isothiocyanate modified material towards Pd2+

• Isothiocyanate derivatives were efficiently introduced to polystyrene framework. • Isomerization from thiocyanate to isothiocyanate gifted Pd 2+ binding affinity. • Increased temperature benefited the kinetically hindered complexation with Pd 2+ . • A promising engineering material for Pd 2+ removal in fixed-bed column. • Proposing a Pd 2+ adsorption strategy via a five-member ring complex. Removal of toxic heavy metals needs to be assured from drug substances and catalyst residues from waste streams at the ppm level which has sometimes proved difficult, causing irreversible harm to human health and environment. Herein, on basis of binding evaluation between isothiocyanate derivatives in Pd(MeCN) 2 Cl 2 model solution, the corresponding functional materials were prepared by efficiently nucleophilic substitution and isomerization reaction on polystyrene framework. The isomerization from thiocyanide to isothiocyanate gifted SCN-2-NCS excellent Pd 2+ adsorption capacity which could tolerate various composite solvent systems and was generally superior than the widely-used isothiourea modified material PSTU. Systematic thermodynamics and kinetics study indicated the complexation with Pd 2+ was kinetically hindered and the increase of temperature contributed to the adsorption process as the maximum adsorption capacity was evaluated as 4.995 mmol·g −1 . The breakthrough point for SCN-2-NCS was 385–390 BV in Pd(MeCN) 2 Cl 2 solution (1.000 mmol·L -1 ) and reached to 126–130 BV in Pd-catalyzed debenzylation waste stream (5.433 mmol·L -1 ). Subsequently, computational chemistry certified an electrophilic addition reaction occurred to generate a five-member Pd 2+ complex in adsorption process which could be converted to N-substituted thiocarboxylic acid in acid condition, and FTIR, NMR and XPS analysis were further employed to probe the proposed adsorption mechanism.

Removal of Toxic Heavy Metals from Contaminated Aqueous Solutions Using Seaweeds: A Review

Heavy metal contamination affects lives with concomitant environmental pollution, and seaweed has emerged as a remedy with the ability to save the ecosystem, due to its eco-friendliness, affordability, availability, and effective metal ion removal rate. Heavy metals are intrinsic toxicants that are known to induce damage to multiple organs, especially when subjected to excess exposure. With respect to these growing concerns, this review presents the preferred sorption material among the many natural sorption materials. The use of seaweeds to treat contaminated solutions has demonstrated outstanding results when compared to other materials. The sorption of metal ions using dead seaweed biomass offers a comparative advantage over other natural sorption materials. This article summarizes the impact of heavy metals on the environment, and why dead seaweed biomass is regarded as the leading remediation material among the available materials. This article also showcases the biosorption mechanism of dead seaweed biomass and its effectiveness as a useful, cheap, and affordable bioremediation material.

Lignin-based adsorbent for effective removal of toxic heavy metals from wastewater

Lignin-based adsorbent for effective removal of toxic heavy metals from wastewater

Application of magnetic chitosan nanocomposites modified by graphene oxide and polyethyleneimine for removal of toxic heavy metals and dyes from water

A new type of magnetic chitosan nanocomposites modified with graphene oxide and polyethyleneimine (MCS/GO-PEI) was synthesized, which was used as an adsorbent to remove the toxic heavy metals of As and Hg as well as anionic azo dyes of congo red and amaranth in environmental water. In this experiment, MCS/GO-PEI was first synthesized and the structure and morphology characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectrometry (FT-IR), X-ray diffractometer (XRD), vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The adsorption performance of the material for four analytes was investigated through adsorption experiments. The kinetic and isothermal results showed that the adsorption process was well described by pseudo-second-order kinetic and Langmuir isotherm model. Besides, the important parameter pH in the adsorption process was investigated and optimized. The maximum adsorption capacities of the nanocomposites for arsenic, mercury ions, congo red, amaranth were 220.26, 124.84, 162.07, 93.81 mg g−1 under optimum adsorption conditions, respectively. The adsorption-desorption showed that the adsorbents were presented adequate reusability. The as-prepared MCS/GO-PEI nanocomposite could serve as promising adsorbent for arsenic, mercury, congo red and amaranth in environmental water samples treatment technology.

Synergistic effects of iron (Fe) and biochar on light-weight geopolymers when used in wastewater treatment applications

The conventional geopolymer usually has bad wastewater treatment ability. How to maximum improve the wastewater treatment ability of geopolymer become a hot topic. The synergistic effects of iron (Fe) and biochar on the circulation fluidized bed combustion fly-ash and bottom ash-based geopolymer (BFBAG) in the removal of dyes and toxic heavy metals were investigated. The hydration numerical models of BFBAG and immobilization mechanisms of heavy metals were proposed at first time. The removal efficiency (RE) of geopolymer with and without Fe is 68% and 84%, respectively, and the RE difference of geopolymer with Fe and biochar is 87%. It indicated that Fe and Biochar had synergistic catalytic effects when used in geopolymer for wastewater treatment applications. During the geopolymer production/formation process, whilst Fe enhanced the removal efficiency of the methylene blue dye, Biochar was concurrently instrumental in enhancing the immobilization efficiency and removal of the toxic heavy metals from the wastewater.

Adsorption properties of two-dimensional carbon material towards the heavy metal ions

The presence of toxic heavy metal ions in the environment generating from industrial activities is one of the most drastic environmental threats that humanity is facing today. Herein, we theoretically study the removal of toxic heavy metals using the two-dimensional carbon materials such as pristine as well as Stone-Wales defect filled carbon cones. Our results show that carbon cones are promising materials to remove the Cd2+, Hg2+, and Pb2+cations in the solutions. Time-dependent density functional analysis also revealed “ligand to metal” excitations for the considered cation/carbon cone systems. The results of this study reveal that two-dimensional carbon cone is an important nanomaterial with possible unexpected properties. Therefore, many experimental and theoretical investigations are necessary to determine these properties.