One-pot synthesis of brewer's spent grain-supported superabsorbent polymer for highly efficient uranium adsorption from wastewater
Research output: Contribution to journal › Research article › Contributed › peer-review
Contributors
Abstract
High-efficient and fast adsorption of uranium is important to reduce the hazards caused by the uranium contamination of water environment due to the increased human activities. Herein, brewer's spent grain (BSG)-supported superabsorbent polymers (SAP) with different cross-linking densities are prepared as cheap and eco-friendly adsorbents for the first time via one-pot swelling and graft polymerization. A 7 wt% NaOH solution is used to swell BSG before grafting and subsequently neutralize the acrylic acid to control the reaction rate without producing alkaline wastewater. Compared with the traditional methods, swelling improves the grafting density and the utilization of raw materials due to the increased disorder degree of the BSG fibers. This results in the grafting of abundant carboxyl and amide groups onto the BSG backbone, forming a strongly hydrophilic polymer network of the BSG-SAP. Compared with the reference polymers without BSG, BSG-SAP presents higher adsorption capacity and enhanced reusability. The highly cross-linked BSG-SAP (BSG-SAP-H) shows an outstanding adsorption capacity of U(VI) (1465 mg/g at pH 0 = 4.6), a fast adsorption rate (81% of equilibrium adsorption capacity in 15 min), and a high selectivity in the presence of competing ions. Adsorption mechanism studies reveal the involvement of amide groups, a bidentate binding structure between UO 2 2+ and the carboxyl groups, and a cation exchange between Na + and UO 2 2+. More importantly, the adsorption capacity of BSG-SAP-H reaches 254.4 mg/g in the fixed-bed column experiment at a low initial concentration (c 0(U) = 30 mg/L) and keeps 80% of the adsorption capacity after four cycles, indicating a great potential for uranium removal from wastewater. This work shows a suitable approach to explore the untreated biomass to prepare SAP with enhanced adsorption performance via a general and low-cost strategy.
Details
Original language | English |
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Article number | 113333 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Environmental Research |
Volume | 212 Part C |
Publication status | Published - Sept 2022 |
Peer-reviewed | Yes |
External IDs
Scopus | 85129460715 |
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WOS | 000800523200002 |
Mendeley | b0e3316c-db5e-3b52-b04a-300485aa8a90 |
unpaywall | 10.1016/j.envres.2022.113333 |
ORCID | /0000-0001-7523-9313/work/142238671 |
ORCID | /0000-0001-7323-7816/work/142257422 |
Keywords
Research priority areas of TU Dresden
DFG Classification of Subject Areas according to Review Boards
Subject groups, research areas, subject areas according to Destatis
Sustainable Development Goals
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Keywords
- Brewer's spent grain, Fixed-bed column, Reusable, Superabsorbent polymer, Uranium adsorption