Ultra-thin iron phosphate nanosheets for high efficient U(VI) adsorption

De Wang; Yanbin Xu; Difei Xiao; Qingan Qiao; Ping Yin; Zhenglong Yang; Jiaxing Li; William Winchester; Zhe Wang; Tasawar Hayat

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.02.091

Ultra-thin iron phosphate nanosheets for high efficient U(VI) adsorption

J Hazard Mater. 2019 Jun 5:371:83-93. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.02.091. Epub 2019 Feb 25.

Authors

De Wang¹, Yanbin Xu², Difei Xiao¹, Qingan Qiao¹, Ping Yin¹, Zhenglong Yang¹, Jiaxing Li³, William Winchester⁴, Zhe Wang⁵, Tasawar Hayat⁶

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Ludong University, Yantai 264025, PR China.
² School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Ludong University, Yantai 264025, PR China. Electronic address: xuyanbin@ldu.edu.cn.
³ CAS Key Laboratory of Photovoltaic and Energy Conservation Materials, Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 1126, Hefei 230031, PR China. Electronic address: lijx@ipp.ac.cn.
⁴ Chemistry Department, Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans, LA, 70125, USA.
⁵ Chemistry Department, Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans, LA, 70125, USA. Electronic address: zwang@xula.edu.
⁶ NAAM Research Group, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

In this study, the ultra-thin iron phosphate Fe₇(PO₄)₆ nanosheets (FP1) with fine-controlled morphology, has been designed as a new two-dimensional (2D) material for uranium adsorption. Due to its unique high accessible 2D structure, atom-dispersed phosphate/iron anchor groups and high specific surface area (27.77 m²⋅g^-1), FP1 shows an extreme-high U(VI) adsorption capacity (704.23 mg·g^-1 at 298 K, pH = 5.0 ± 0.1), which is about 27 times of conventional 3D Fe₇(PO₄)₆ (24.51 mg·g^-1 -sample FP2) and higher than most 2D absorbent materials, showing a great value in the treatment of radioactive wastewater. According to the adsorption results, the sorption between U(VI) and FP1 is spontaneous and endothermic, and can be conformed to single molecular layer adsorption. Based on the analyses of FESEM, EDS, Mapping, FT-IR and XRD after adsorption, the possibile adsorption mechanism can be described as a Monolayer Surface Complexation and Stacking mode (MSCS-Mode). Additionally, the research not only provide a novel preparing method for 2D phosphate materials but also pave a new pathway to study other two-dimensional adsorption materials.

Keywords: 2D Materials; Adsorption; Fe(7)(PO(4))(6); Nanosheets; U (VI).

Abstract

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