Heavy metal ions and particulate pollutants can be effectively removed by a gravity-driven ceramic foam filter optimized by carbon nanotube implantation

Wei Zhou; Pute Wu; Lin Zhang; Delan Zhu; Xining Zhao; Yaohui Cai

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.126721

Heavy metal ions and particulate pollutants can be effectively removed by a gravity-driven ceramic foam filter optimized by carbon nanotube implantation

J Hazard Mater. 2022 Jan 5:421:126721. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.126721. Epub 2021 Jul 30.

Authors

Wei Zhou¹, Pute Wu², Lin Zhang³, Delan Zhu¹, Xining Zhao³, Yaohui Cai³

Affiliations

¹ College of Water Resources and Architectural Engineering, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, PR China.
² Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, PR China. Electronic address: gjzwpt@vip.sina.com.
³ Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, PR China.

PMID: 34358976
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.126721

Abstract

It is of great significance to develop a new gravity-driven filter to remove water pollutants, but it is still challenging. Here, a novel and simple strategy is demonstrated to manufacture fly ash (FA) ceramic foams showing a three-dimensional interconnected porous structure, with multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) implanted by combining carbamate grafting and polydimethylsiloxane coating. The polydimethylsiloxane formed a physical coating on the carbamate group, generating an effective thermal insulating layer on the outer side of the entire MWCNT. The FA foam, which shows a sufficient adsorption capacity for Pb(II) (51.67 ± 1.17 mg g^-1) and Cd(II) (30.12 ± 0.37 mg g^-1) at pH = 5, T = 25 °C, has a 96.33%, 95.12%, 89.50% removal efficiency for Cd(II), Pb(II), and particulate pollutants, and exhibits excellent recycling performance. This paper provides new opportunities to fabricate gravity-driven filters with low energy consumption for wastewater treatment.

Keywords: Ceramic filter; Fly ash foam; Heavy metal adsorption; Multiwalled carbon nanotube; Reusability assessment.