Luffa sponge-derived hierarchical meso/macroporous boron nitride fibers as superior sorbents for heavy metal sequestration

Shun Li; Fei Liu; Yiping Su; Ningning Shao; Dongfang Yu; Yong Liu; Weishu Liu; Zuotai Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.05.062

Luffa sponge-derived hierarchical meso/macroporous boron nitride fibers as superior sorbents for heavy metal sequestration

J Hazard Mater. 2019 Oct 15:378:120669. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.05.062. Epub 2019 May 26.

Authors

Shun Li¹, Fei Liu², Yiping Su², Ningning Shao², Dongfang Yu², Yong Liu³, Weishu Liu⁴, Zuotai Zhang⁵

Affiliations

¹ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Soil and Groundwater Pollution Control, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, China; Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, China.
² Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Soil and Groundwater Pollution Control, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, China.
³ Foshan (Southern China) Institute for New Materials, Foshan 528200, Guangdong, China.
⁴ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, China. Electronic address: liuws@sustc.edu.cn.
⁵ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Soil and Groundwater Pollution Control, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, China. Electronic address: zhangzt@sustc.edu.cn.

PMID: 31202057
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.05.062

Abstract

Boron nitride (BN) has received tremendous attention as a promising adsorbent material. However, unsatisfactory uptake capacities over heavy metal ions limit their practical applications. Herein, we have synthesized a novel hierarchical meso/macroporous BN fibers (MBNFs) via a simple carbothermal reduction method using luffa sponge as a template. The as-obtained MBNFs comprise densely arranged parallel macrochannels on a micrometer scale, with mesopores on the surface of the channel. The resulting MBNFs exhibited remarkable adsorption performance for different heavy metal ions including Cd²⁺, Zn²⁺, Cr³⁺, and Pb²⁺ with maximum uptake capacities as high as 2989, 1885, 723, and 453 mg/g, respectively. In particular, the adsorption capacity for Cd²⁺ and Zn²⁺ exceed the highest values reported for BN materials. In addition, the MBNFs showed excellent stability to re-use for a few times. The present MBNFs materials prepared using cheap and earth abundant luffa sponge may find broad applications such as adsorbent for environmental remediation applications.

Keywords: Boron nitride; Heavy metal adsorption; Hierarchical meso/macroporous; Luffa sponge.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't