article · Scientific Reports
Researchers have developed a chelating adsorbent, named IAT-GO, designed to extract lead from contaminated water. The material is produced by functionalising high-surface-area graphene oxide with silane and carboxylic acid groups through a two-step chemical process involving hydrolysis, condensation, epoxide ring opening, and nucleophilic substitution. Testing under optimised conditions showed that the material achieves a maximum adsorption capacity of 124.0 mg/g at pH 5 within 30 minutes. It completely removes lead at concentrations below 50 ppm and maintains high selectivity for lead even in complex mixtures containing five other metal ions at 100 ppm each. The adsorbent can be regenerated using dilute nitric acid, retaining over 97 percent removal efficiency across five consecutive reuse cycles.
Lead contamination in water supplies presents severe health and environmental hazards. Developing materials that can rapidly, selectively, and completely extract toxic heavy metals from complex mixtures allows for more effective water decontamination. Because this adsorbent can be reused multiple times without significant loss of performance, it offers an efficient and durable approach to treating industrial wastewater and polluted water sources.
The material is intended for water remediation and wastewater treatment applications, relevant to water utilities and industrial operators managing heavy metal effluents. It currently appears to be at an applied laboratory testing stage, having been evaluated in controlled batch conditions across multi-ion solutions and regeneration cycles, though real-world pilot demonstrations are not reported in the abstract.
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A novel chelating adsorbent based on (3-iminodiacetic acid) propyltriethoxysilane graphene oxide (IAT-GO) has been developed, showing exceptional promise for capturing lead. IAT-GO is made by combining a high-surface-area graphene oxide with a specially designed chelating ligand, which can selectively and efficiently remove lead. The synthesis of IAT-GO involves a two-step progression. In the first step, covalent bonds form between graphene oxide and (3-aminopropyl)-triethoxysilane (AT) through hydrolysis, condensation, and epoxide ring opening reactions. In the second step, nucleophilic substitution reactions occur between the primary amines and chloroacetic acid (CAA). A comprehensive suite of characterization techniques, including XPS, UV–Vis, XRD, Raman, FTIR, TEM, and SEM, provides detailed insights into the IAT-GO adsorbent's chemical composition and physical form, elucidating its intricate structure and morphology. Optimizing the experimental conditions for using the adsorbent material to remove Pb(II) ions from contaminated water revealed a maximum adsorption capacity of 124.0 mg/g at pH 5 and 30 min. The IAT-GO displays high selectivity for Pb(II) in a mixture of six metal ions containing 100 ppm of each one. Moreover, the IAT-GO shows 100% removal of Pb(II) for concentrations lower than 50 ppm. The excellent fit of the experimental data with the Langmuir adsorption isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic models (R2 > 99%) indicates that Pb(II) ion uptake onto the IAT-GO surface occurs via the monolayer formation of mercury ions. IAT-GO demonstrates exceptional potential as an innovative adsorbent for lead-contaminated water. Nitric acid (0.4 M) effectively regenerates the material, while its reusability remains impressive even after five cycles (> 97% removal efficiency). Therefore, this study highlights the development of a groundbreaking material, IAT-GO, with exceptional potential for remediating lead-contaminated water. Its high efficiency, selectivity, reusability, and cost-effectiveness make it a promising candidate for real-world applications.
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DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-66323-3
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