Environmentally friendly fabrication of new β-Cyclodextrin/ZrO2 nanocomposite for simultaneous removal of Pb(II) and BPA from water

Muhammad Usman, Adeel Ahmed, Zhijian Ji, Bing Yu, Youqing Shen, Hailin Cong*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

51 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Heavy metals and endocrine disrupters often co-exist in wastewater, while their possible competition behaviours make uptake removal more challenging. Therefore, β-Cyclodextrin based nanocomposite adsorbent was successfully fabricated (β-Cyclodextrin/ZrO2) for the simultaneous uptake of Pb(II) and Bisphenol A from wastewater. FTIR, XRD, and XPS confirmed the successful fabrication of the β-Cyclodextrin/ZrO2 nanocomposite. In this setting, oxygen-containing groups are primarily responsible for the Pb(II) binding, while the β-Cyclodextrin cavities adsorb Bisphenol A through host-guest interaction, enabling the simultaneous removal of Pb(II) and Bisphenol A. In the mono contaminant system, the nanocomposite displayed prominent removal ability toward Pb(II) and Bisphenol A with adsorption characteristics of pseudo-second-order, Langmuir, and Freundlich isotherm model. The maximum adsorption capacities were identified for Pb(II) and Bisphenol A to be 274.4 mg/g and 174.9 mg/g at 298 K, respectively. Most importantly, the β-Cyclodextrin/ZrO2 could efficiently attain simultaneous removal of Pb(II) and Bisphenol A by avoiding their competitive behaviours was due to the different adsorption mechanisms (electrostatic interaction and host-guest interaction). Moreover, the adsorbed Pb(II) and Bisphenol A could be successfully recovered with a slight decline in nanocomposite removal performance even after 4 cycles in the binary-component system. All these findings provide insights into the fabrication of highly effective adsorbent with separated adsorption sites to treat wastewater bearing heavy metal and endocrine disrupters.

Original languageEnglish
Article number147207
JournalScience of the Total Environment
Volume784
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 25 2021
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Adsorption
  • Bisphenol A
  • Kinetics
  • Pb(II)
  • β-Cyclodextrin

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Environmental Engineering
  • Environmental Chemistry
  • Waste Management and Disposal
  • Pollution

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