Cr(VI) Adsorption on Engineered Iron Oxide Nanoparticles: Exploring Complexation Processes and Water Chemistry

  • Zezhen Pan
  • , Xiaoming Zhu
  • , Anshuman Satpathy
  • , Wenlu Li
  • , John D. Fortner
  • , Daniel E. Giammar

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

100 Scopus citations

Abstract

Surface-functionalized magnetic nanoparticles are promising adsorbents due to their large surface areas and ease of separation after contaminant removal. In this work, the affinity of Cr(VI) adsorption to 8 nm surface-functionalized superparamagnetic magnetite nanoparticles was determined for surface coatings with amine (trimethyloctadecylammonium bromide, CTAB) and carboxyl (stearic acid, SA) functional groups. Cr(VI) adsorbed more strongly to the CTAB-coated nanoparticles than to the SA-coated materials due to electrostatic interactions between positively charged CTAB and anionic Cr(VI) species. The adsorption of Cr(VI) by CTAB- A nd SA-coated nanoparticles increased with decreasing pH (4.5-10), which could be simulated by a surface complexation model. Cr(VI) removal performance by the nanocomposite was evaluated for two realistic drinking water compositions. The co-occurrence of divalent cations (Ca2+ and Mg2+) and Cr(VI) resulted in decreased Cr(VI) adsorption as particles were destabilized, leading to the aggregation and lower effective surface area, confirming the importance of the overall water composition on the performance of novel engineered nanomaterials for water treatment applications.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)11913-11921
Number of pages9
JournalEnvironmental Science and Technology
Volume53
Issue number20
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 15 2019

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