Issue 37, 2012

High adsorption capacity and the key role of carbonate groups for heavy metal ion removal by basic aluminum carbonate porous nanospheres

Abstract

A fast, low-cost and scalable method was developed to prepare basic aluminum carbonate (Al(OH)CO3) porous nanospheres via a microwave-assisted solvothermal process in 5 min. All chemicals used were low-cost and environmentally benign. These Al(OH)CO3 nanospheres had an extremely large surface area (484 m2 g−1), abundant carbonate groups, and showed superb adsorption properties with maximum capacities of 170 mg g−1 and 60 mg g−1 for As(V) and Cr(VI) at pH 7, respectively. These values were obviously higher than that of many other nanomaterials. In addition, for practical applications, 5 mg Al(OH)CO3 nanospheres could purify 6 kg As(V) contaminated water, reducing the As(V) concentration from 100 ppb to less than 10 ppb. A new adsorption mechanism involving ion exchange between carbonate groups and As(V) or Cr(VI) species was proposed and confirmed.

Graphical abstract: High adsorption capacity and the key role of carbonate groups for heavy metal ion removal by basic aluminum carbonate porous nanospheres

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
26 Jun 2012
Accepted
30 Jul 2012
First published
01 Aug 2012

J. Mater. Chem., 2012,22, 19898-19903

High adsorption capacity and the key role of carbonate groups for heavy metal ion removal by basic aluminum carbonate porous nanospheres

C. Cao, P. Li, J. Qu, Z. Dou, W. Yan, J. Zhu, Z. Wu and W. Song, J. Mater. Chem., 2012, 22, 19898 DOI: 10.1039/C2JM34138G

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