Mechanism of Cd(II) and Cu(II) Adsorption onto Few-Layered Magnetic Graphene Oxide as an Efficient Adsorbent

Ting Guo; Chaoke Bulin; Zeyu Ma; Bo Li; Yanghuan Zhang; Bangwen Zhang; Ruiguang Xing; Xin Ge

doi:10.1021/acsomega.1c01770

Mechanism of Cd(II) and Cu(II) Adsorption onto Few-Layered Magnetic Graphene Oxide as an Efficient Adsorbent

ACS Omega. 2021 Jun 16;6(25):16535-16545. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.1c01770. eCollection 2021 Jun 29.

Authors

Ting Guo¹, Chaoke Bulin^{2

3}, Zeyu Ma², Bo Li³, Yanghuan Zhang³, Bangwen Zhang⁴, Ruiguang Xing², Xin Ge²

Affiliations

¹ College of Energy and Environment, Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, Baotou 014010, P. R. China.
² College of Materials and Metallurgy, Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, Baotou 014010, P. R. China.
³ Central Iron and Steel Research Institute, Beijing 100081, P. R. China.
⁴ Analysis and Testing Center, Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, Baotou 014010, P. R. China.

Abstract

Heavy metal contamination caused by industrial discharge is a challenging environmental issue. Herein, an efficient adsorbent based on few-layered magnetic graphene oxide (FLMGO) was fabricated, characterized, and utilized to remove aqueous Cd(II) and Cu(II). Results present that the two components graphene oxide (GO) and Fe₃O₄ of FLMGO promote mutually, enabling FLMGO to outperform either GO or Fe₃O₄. Specifically, FLMGO adsorbs Cd(II) and Cu(II) with adsorption quantities of 401.14 and 1114.22 mg·g^-1 in 5 and 7 min, respectively. Moreover, FLMGO can be readily recovered via magnetic separation using a hand-held magnet. Adsorptions are spontaneous, endothermic, and entropy increasing, which are the best described by the Freundlich and pseudo-second-order model. The interaction mechanism is as follows: lone pair electrons in C=O- and C-O-related groups were coordinated toward Cd(II) and Cu(II) to induce chemical interaction. The high adsorption efficiency endows FLMGO with encouraging application potential in heavy metal remediation.