Designing Dual-Effect Nanohybrids for Removing Heavy Metals and Different Kinds of Anions from the Natural Water

• Main Authors: Osama Saber, Sarah Mousa Asiri, Mohamed Farouk Ezzeldin, Waleed I. M. El-Azab, Mohammed Abu-Abdeen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-06-01
• Series: Materials
• Subjects: adsorption process; dual-function materials; graphene-nanohybrids; porous structures; water quality
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/13/11/2524

In the present study, well-designed nanohybrids are used to act as effective dual-function adsorbents for removing both anions and heavy metals from natural water, at the same time. In this trend, Zn-Al LDHs and graphene oxide are applied to build up building blocks to produce a series of nanohybrids. These nanohybrids were characterized by X–ray diffraction, thermal analyses, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and scanning and transmission electron microscopy. These techniques confirmed that the prepared nanohybrids contained nanolayered structures with three−dimensional porous systems. These porous systems were identified by the nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms and water purification experiments. The obtained results indicated that these nanohybrids included suitable structures to act as dual function materials. The first function was achieved by removing more than 80% of both cadmium and lead from the natural water. The second function was accomplished by eliminating of 100% of hydrogen phosphate and bromide anions alongside with 80%–91% of sulfate, chloride, and fluoride anions. To conclude, these well-designed nanohybrids convert two-dimensional nanolayered structures to three-dimensional porous networks to work as dual-function materials for removing of heavy metals and different kinds of anions naturally found in the fresh tap water sample with no parameters optimization.