Sustainable valorization of mesoporous aluminosilicate composite from display panel glasses waste for adsorption of heavy metal ions

Cheng-Kuo Tsai; Ruey-An Doong; Huan-Yi Hung

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.04.056

Sustainable valorization of mesoporous aluminosilicate composite from display panel glasses waste for adsorption of heavy metal ions

Sci Total Environ. 2019 Jul 10:673:337-346. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.04.056. Epub 2019 Apr 5.

Authors

Cheng-Kuo Tsai¹, Ruey-An Doong², Huan-Yi Hung³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, National Tsing-Hua University, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan.
² Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, National Tsing-Hua University, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan. Electronic address: radoong@mx.nthu.edu.tw.
³ Department of Chemical Analysis, Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Hsinchu, Taiwan.

PMID: 30991323
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.04.056

Abstract

The recycling of the huge amount of thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) glass wastes has become one of the worldwide environmental issues. Herein, a novel and cost-effective synthesis method for the fabrication of mesoporous aluminosilicate composite (M-ANC) from the TFT-LCD waste has been developed to serve as the environmentally benign adsorbent for the removal of metal ions including Cu²⁺, Zn²⁺ and Ni²⁺. After melting at 1000 °C in the presence of Na₂CO₃ for phase separation, nanoparticles with average particle size of 12 nm appear on the surface of M-ANC, and subsequently results in the production of mesoporous structure with a surface area of 175 m² g^-1. The tailored M-ANC shows negatively charged and functional groups, which exhibits an excellent adsorption capacity toward metal ion removal in the pH range of 1.5-7.0. The maximum Langmuir adsorption capacity of Cu²⁺, Zn²⁺ and Ni²⁺ are determined to be 64.5, 34.0 and 23.1 mg g^-1, respectively, at pH 3.5. Moreover, the environmental applicability of M-ANC is evaluated by column experiment in the presence of real electroplating wastewater. M-ANC can effectively remove Ni²⁺ in the electroplating wastewater with the adsorption capacity of 18.7 mg g^-1. Results obtained in this study clearly indicate that M-ANC recycled from TFT-LCD is a novel environmentally friendly adsorbent toward metal ion removal, which can open a gateway to fabricate mesoporous aluminosilicate materials through the recycling of other electronic wastes for real environmental application to remove metal ions and other emerging pollutants in the contaminated water and wastewater.

Keywords: Adsorption capacity; Breakthrough curve; Mesoporous material; Recycling; Thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) waste.