Effective removal of inorganic mercury and methylmercury from aqueous solution using novel thiol-functionalized graphene oxide/Fe-Mn composite

Yao Huang; Yanyan Gong; Jingchun Tang; Siyu Xia

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2018.11.074

Effective removal of inorganic mercury and methylmercury from aqueous solution using novel thiol-functionalized graphene oxide/Fe-Mn composite

J Hazard Mater. 2019 Mar 15:366:130-139. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2018.11.074. Epub 2018 Nov 18.

Authors

Yao Huang¹, Yanyan Gong², Jingchun Tang³, Siyu Xia⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Environment, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution and Health, Jinan University, Guangzhou 511443, China; College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria (Ministry of Education), Tianjin Engineering Center of Environmental Diagnosis and Contamination Remediation, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China.
² School of Environment, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution and Health, Jinan University, Guangzhou 511443, China. Electronic address: yanyangong@jnu.edu.cn.
³ College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria (Ministry of Education), Tianjin Engineering Center of Environmental Diagnosis and Contamination Remediation, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China. Electronic address: tangjch@nankai.edu.cn.
⁴ College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria (Ministry of Education), Tianjin Engineering Center of Environmental Diagnosis and Contamination Remediation, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China.

PMID: 30513440
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2018.11.074

Abstract

A novel thiol-functionalized graphene oxide/Fe-Mn (SGO/Fe-Mn) was investigated for aqueous Hg²⁺ and CH₃Hg⁺ removal. Mercury were removed mainly through ligand exchange and surface complexation with surface active sites (i.e., -SH, OH, OCO, CC, SiO, and ππ bond). SH had the strongest binding ability with mercury, forming sulfur-containing organic matter or polymers with Hg²⁺, and sulfur-containing organometallic compounds or thiolate-like species with CH₃Hg⁺. The BET sorption isotherm model well simulated the sorption isotherm data of Hg²⁺ (R²=0.995, q_m=233.17 mg/g) and CH₃Hg⁺ (R²=0.997, q_m=36.69 mg/g), indicating a multilayer adsorption process. The mercury uptake was promoted with the increase of 3-MPTS content, adsorbent dosage, and pH (<5.5), whereas the uptake was inhibited by high pH (>5.5) and high concentrations of humic acid and electrolytes. SGO/Fe-Mn demonstrated high mercury uptake in simulated surface water/groundwater and in the presence of Pb, Cu, Ni, Sb, Cd and Zn. The mercury-laden SGO/Fe-Mn can be successfully regenerated and reused for three times with 98.1% and 67.0% of original Hg²⁺ and CH₃Hg⁺ sorption capacity when 5% thiourea + 2 M KI was used as the desorbing agent. This study demonstrates potential and viability of SGO/Fe-Mn for mercury remediation.

Keywords: Mercury; Methylmercury; Remediation; Sorption; Thiol-functionalized graphene oxide/Fe-Mn.

Publication types

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