This article reports the synthesis of an aerogel involving reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and polyethylenimine (PEI), and describes its potential application as an effective sorbent to treat Hg(II) contaminated water. The rGO/PEI sorbent was synthetized using a supercritical CO2 method. N2 physisorption, electron microscopy, and elemental mapping were applied to visualize the meso/macroporous morphology formed by the supercritical drying. The advantages of the synthetized materials are highlighted with respect to the larger exposed GO surface for the PEI grafting of aerogels vs. cryogels, homogeneous distribution of the nitrogenated amino groups in the former and, finally, high Hg(II) sorption capacities. Sorption tests were performed starting from water solutions involving traces of Hg(II). Even though, the designed sorbent was able to eliminate almost all of the metal from the water phase, attaining in very short periods of time residual Hg(II) values as low as 3.5 µg L-1, which is close to the legal limits of drinking water of 1-2 µg L-1. rGO/PEI exhibited a remarkably high value for the maximum sorption capacity of Hg(II), in the order of 219 mg g-1. All of these factors indicate that the designed rGO/PEI aerogel can be considered as a promising candidate to treat Hg(II) contaminated wastewater.
Keywords: Hg(II) sorption; aerogel; graphene oxide; polyethylenimine; supercritical CO2.