Mercury removal from aqueous solution using petal-like MoS<sub>2</sub> nanosheets

doi:10.1007/s11783-020-1307-0

Front. Environ. Sci. Eng.

2021, Vol. 15

Issue (1) : 15 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-020-1307-0

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Mercury removal from aqueous solution using petal-like MoS₂ nanosheets

Ragini Pirarath¹, Palani Shivashanmugam², Asad Syed³, Abdallah M. Elgorban³, Sambandam Anandan¹(

), Muthupandian Ashokkumar⁴

¹. Department of Chemistry, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli-620015, India
². Department of Chemical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli-620015, India
³. Department of Botany and Microbiology, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
⁴. School of Chemistry, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Vic-3010, Australia

Download: PDF(1322 KB) HTML
Export: BibTeX | EndNote | Reference Manager | ProCite | RefWorks

Abstract

• Synthesized few-layered MoS₂ nanosheets via surfactant-assisted hydrothermal method.

• Synthesized MoS₂ nanosheets show petal-like morphology.

• Adsorbent showed 93% of mercury removal efficiency.

• The adsorption of mercury is attributed to negative zeta potential (-21.8 mV).

Recently, different nanomaterial-based adsorbents have received greater attention for the removal of environmental pollutants, specifically heavy metals from aqueous media. In this work, we synthesized few-layered MoS₂ nanosheets via a surfactant-assisted hydrothermal method and utilized them as an efficient adsorbent for the removal of mercury from aqueous media. The synthesized MoS₂ nanosheets showed petal-like morphology as confirmed by scanning electron microscope and high-resolution transmission electron microscopic analysis. The average thickness of the nanosheets is found to be about 57 nm. Possessing high stability and negative zeta potential makes this material suitable for efficient adsorption of mercury from aqueous media. The adsorption efficiency of the adsorbent was investigated as a function of pH, contact time and adsorbent dose. The kinetics of adsorption and reusability potential of the adsorbent were also performed. A pseudo-second-order kinetics for mercury adsorption was observed. As prepared MoS₂ nanosheets showed 93% mercury removal efficiency, whereas regenerated adsorbent showed 91% and 79% removal efficiency in the respective 2^nd and 3^rd cycles. The adsorption capacity of the adsorbent was found to be 289 mg/g at room temperature.

Keywords Anionic surfactant 2D material MoS₂ nanosheets Mercury removal Adsorption capacity

Corresponding Author(s): Sambandam Anandan

Issue Date: 19 August 2020

Cite this article:

Ragini Pirarath,Palani Shivashanmugam,Asad Syed, et al. Mercury removal from aqueous solution using petal-like MoS₂ nanosheets[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2021, 15(1): 15.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/10.1007/s11783-020-1307-0
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/Y2021/V15/I1/15

Fig.1 Schematic representation of the synthesis process of MoS₂ nanosheets.

Fig.2 SEM images with different magnification scales (a and b), TEM (c and d), HRTEM (e), SAED (f) and EDAX (g) images of synthesized MoS₂ nanosheets.

Fig.3 Influence of pH on the adsorption of Hg on to the MoS₂ nanosheet surface (Initial concentration of mercury solution-100 mg/L, adsorbent dosage-0.5 mg/mL, contact time-5 h. pH-10).

Fig.4 Effect of adsorbent dosage on the adsorption capacity and efficiency of Hg removal from the aqueous solution; (initial concentration of mercury solution-100 mg/L, adsorbent dose-0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5 mg/mL, contact time-5 h, pH-10).

Fig.5 Effect of time on the mercury removal efficiency of MoS₂ nanosheets and bulk MoS₂; (initial concentration of mercury solution-100 mg/L, adsorbent dose-0.5 mg/mL, contact time-5 h, pH-10).

Fig.6 Pseudo-first order (a), Pseudo-second order (b), Elovich (c) plots of MoS₂ nanosheets for the adsorption of mercury; (initial concentration of mercury solution -100 mg/L, adsorbent dosage-0.5 mg/mL, contact time-5 h, pH-10).

Fig.7 Pseudo-first-order (a), Pseudo-second-order (b), Elovich (c) plots of bulk MoS₂ for the adsorption of mercury; (initial concentration of mercury solution-100 mg/L, adsorbent dosage-0.5 mg/mL, contact time-5 h, pH-10)

Fig.8 Study of the influence of solution pH on the adsorption of Hg on to the MoS₂ nanosheet surface (a?d) by voltammetry using scTRACE gold electrode. (a) and (c) are the HgCl₂ solution at pH= 2 and pH= 10 respectively; (b) and (d) are after adding 0.5 mg/mL adsorbent into the HgCl₂ solution at pH= 2 and pH= 10).

Fig.9 FT-IR spectra of MoS₂ nanosheets before and after the adsorption of mercury.

1	K Ai, C Ruan, M Shen, L Lu (2016). MoS2 nanosheets with widened interlayer spacing for high-efficiency removal of mercury in aquatic systems. Advanced Functional Materials, 26(30): 5542–5549 https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201601338
2	R Anbazhagan, H J Wang, H C Tsai, R J Jeng (2014). Highly concentrated MoS2 nanosheets in water achieved by thioglycolic acid as stabilizer and used as biomarkers. RSC Advances, 4(81): 42936–42941 https://doi.org/10.1039/C4RA07512A
3	V Bhardwaj, T Bhardwaj, K Sharma, A Gupta, S Chauhan, S S Cameotra, S Sharma, R Gupta, S Sharma (2014). Drug-surfactant interaction: Thermo-acoustic investigation of sodium dodecyl sulfate and antimicrobial drug (levofloxacin) for potential pharmaceutical application. RSC Advances, 4(47): 24935–24943 https://doi.org/10.1039/C4RA02177K
4	B Chen, Q Ma, C Tan, T Lim, L Huang, H Zhang (2015). Carbon-based sorbents with three-dimensional Architectures for Water Remediation. Small, 11(27): 3319–3336
5	A Jawad, Z Liao, Z Zhou, A Khan, T Wang, J Ifthikar, A Shahzad, Z Chen, Z Chen (2017). Fe-MoS4: An effective and stable LDH-based adsorbent for selective removal of heavy metals. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 9(34): 28451–28463 https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.7b07208
6	W Choi, N Choudhary, G H Han, J Park, D Akinwande, Y H Lee (2017). Recent development of two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides and their applications. Materials Today, 20(3): 116–130 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mattod.2016.10.002
7	M Fomina, G M Gadd (2014). Biosorption: Current perspectives on concept, definition and application. Bioresource Technology, 160: 3–14 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2013.12.102
8	R Ganatra, Q Zhang (2014). Few-layer MoS2: A promising layered semiconductor. ACS Nano, 8(5): 4074–4099 https://doi.org/10.1021/nn405938z
9	V Ganesan, C Louis, S P Damodaran (2018). Graphene oxide-wrapped magnetite nanoclusters: A recyclable functional hybrid for fast and highly efficient removal of organic dyes from wastewater. Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering, 6(2): 2176–2190 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jece.2018.03.026
10	E Ghasemi, A Heydari, M Sillanpää (2017). Superparamagnetic Fe3O4@EDTA nanoparticles as an efficient adsorbent for simultaneous removal of Ag(I), Hg(II), Mn(II), Zn(II), Pb(II) and Cd(II) from water and soil environmental samples. Microchemical Journal, 131: 51–56 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.microc.2016.11.011
11	X Guo, B Du, Q Wei, J Yang, L Hu, L Yan, W Xu (2014). Synthesis of amino functionalized magnetic graphenes composite material and its application to remove Cr(VI), Pb(II), Hg(II), Cd(II) and Ni(II) from contaminated water. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 278: 211–220 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2014.05.075
12	M Hadavifar, N Bahramifar, H Younesi, M Rastakhiz, Q Li, J Yu, E Eftekhari (2016). Removal of mercury(II) and cadmium(II) ions from synthetic wastewater by a newly synthesized amino and thiolated multi-walled carbon nanotubes. Journal of Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers, 67: 397–405 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtice.2016.08.029
13	P Hadi, M H To, C W Hui, C S K Lin, G McKay (2015). Aqueous mercury adsorption by activated carbons. Water Research, 73: 37–55 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2015.01.018
14	M Hsieh, G Li, W Chang, H Tuan (2017). Germanium nanoparticles/molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) nanocomposite as a high-capacity, high-rate anode material for lithium-ion batteries. Journal of Materials Chemistry. A, Materials for Energy and Sustainability, 5(8): 4114–4121 https://doi.org/10.1039/C6TA08455A
15	M Hua, S Zhang, B Pan, W Zhang, L Lv, Q Zhang (2012). Heavy metal removal from water/wastewater by nanosized metal oxides: A review. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 212: 317–331
16	L Huang, C Peng, Q Cheng, M He, B Chen, B Hu (2017). Thiol-functionalized magnetic porous organic polymers for highly efficient removal of mercury. ACS I&EC Research Journal, 56(46): 13696–13703 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.iecr.7b03093
17	Z Huang, M Zhao, C Wang, S Wang, L Dai, L Zhang, L Xu (2020). Selective removal mechanism of the novel Zr-based metal organic framework adorbents for gold ions from aqueous solutions. Chemical Engineering Journal, 384: 123343 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2019.123343
18	F Jia, Q Wang, J Wu, Y Li, S Song (2017a). Two-dimensional molybdenum disulfide as a Superb adsorbent for removing Hg2+ from water. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 5(8): 7410–7419 https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.7b01880
19	F Jia, X Zhang, S Song (2017b). AFM study on the adsorption of Hg2+ on natural molybdenum disulfide in aqueous solutions. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 19(5): 3837–3844 https://doi.org/10.1039/C6CP07302F
20	X J Jia, J Wang, J Wu, Y Du, B Zhao, D Engelsen (2015). Bouquet-like calcium sulfate dihydrate: A highly efficient adsorbent for Congo red dye. RSC Advances, 5(88): 72321–72330 https://doi.org/10.1039/C5RA11514K
21	X Jin, P Ning, L Tang, J Peng, K Li, S Bao (2016). Highly effective removal of mercury and lead ions from wastewater by mercaptoamine-functionalised silica-coated magnetic nano-adsorbents: Behaviours and mechanisms. Applied Surface Science, 393: 457–466
22	A S Krishna Kumar, S J Jiang, J K Warchoł (2017). Synthesis and characterization of two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide magnetic MoS2@Fe3O4 nanoparticles for adsorption of Cr(VI)/Cr(III). ACS Omega, 2(9): 6187–6200 https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.7b00757
23	P J Landrigan (1982). Occupational and community exposures to toxic metals: Lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic. Western Journal of Medicine, 137: 531–539
24	C Lee, H Yan, L E Brus, T F Heinz, J Hone, S Ryu (2010). Anomalous lattice vibrations of single- and few layer MoS2. ACS Nano, 4(5): 2695–2700 https://doi.org/10.1021/nn1003937
25	G Lin, T Hu, S Wang, T Xie, L Zhang, S Cheng, L Fu, C Xiong (2019). Selective removal behavior and mechanism of trace Hg(II) using modified corn husk leaves. Chemosphere, 225: 65–72 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2019.03.006
26	X Liu, L Li, Y Wei, Y Zheng, Q Xiao, B Feng (2015). Facile synthesis of boron- and nitride-doped MoS2 nanosheets as fluorescent probes for the ultrafast, sensitive, and label-free detection of Hg2+. Analyst (London), 140(13): 4654–4661 https://doi.org/10.1039/C5AN00641D
27	R Mas-Ballesté, C Gómez-Navarro, J Gómez-Herrero, F Zamora (2011). 2D materials: To graphene and beyond. Nanoscale, 3(1): 20–30 https://doi.org/10.1039/C0NR00323A
28	K H Nam, S Gomez-Salazar, L L Tavlarides (2003). Mercury(II) adsorption from wastewaters using a thiol functional adsorbent. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 42(9): 1955–1964 https://doi.org/10.1021/ie020834l
29	D Ramimoghadam, M Zobir, B Hussein, Y Taufiq-yap (2012). The effect of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) on the properties of ZnO synthesized by hydrothermal method. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 13(12): 13275–13293 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms131013275
30	C Santhosh, V Velmurugan, G Jacob, S K Jeong, A N Grace, A Bhatnagar (2016). Role of nanomaterials in water treatment applications: A review. Chemical Engineering Journal, 306: 1116–1137 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2016.08.053
31	Y Song, M Lu, B Huang, D Wang, G Wang, L Zhou (2018). Decoration of defective MoS2 nanosheets with Fe3O4 nanoparticles as superior magnetic adsorbent for highly selective and efficient mercury ions Hg2+ removal. Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 737: 113–121 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2017.12.087
32	X Wang, Y Guo, Y Li, M Han, J Zhao, X Cheng (2012). Nanomaterials as sorbents to remove heavy metal ions in wastewater treatment. Journal of Environmental & Analytical Toxicology, 02(07): 154 https://doi.org/10.4172/2161-0525.1000154
33	Z Wang, B Mi (2017). Environmental applications of 2 molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nanosheets. Environmental Science & Technology, 51(15): 8229–8244 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.7b01466
34	F S Zhang, J O Nriagu, H Itoh (2005). Mercury removal from water using activated carbons derived from organic sewage sludge. Water Research, 39(2–3): 389–395 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2004.09.027
35	S Zhang, B V R Chowdari, Z Wen, J Jin, J Yang (2015a). Constructing highly oriented configuration by few-layer MoS2: Toward high-performance lithium-ion batteries and hydrogen evolution reactions. ACS Nano, 9(12): 12464–12472 https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.5b05891
36	Y Zhang, S Zhang, T S Chung (2015b). Nanometric graphene oxide framework membranes with enhanced heavy metal removal via nanofiltration. Environmental Science & Technology, 49(16): 10235–10242 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5b02086
37	M Zhao, Z Huang, S Wang, L Zhang, Y Zhou (2019). Design of L-cysteine functionalized UiO-66 MOFs for selective adsorption of Hg(II) in aqueous medium. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 11(50): 46973–46983 https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.9b17508

[1]	Zhenyu Yang, Rong Xing, Wenjun Zhou, Lizhong Zhu. Adsorption characteristics of ciprofloxacin onto g-MoS₂ coated biochar nanocomposites[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2020, 14(3): 41-.
[2]	Ling Li, Yu He, Xia Lu. New insights into mercury removal mechanism on CeO₂-based catalysts: A first-principles study[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2018, 12(2): 11-.
[3]	Yao NIE,Shubo DENG,Bin WANG,Jun HUANG,Gang YU. Removal of clofibric acid from aqueous solution by polyethylenimine-modified chitosan beads[J]. Front.Environ.Sci.Eng., 2014, 8(5): 675-682.
[4]	Zhenhe CHEN, Shubo DENG, Haoran WEI, Bin WANG, Jun HUANG, Gang YU. Activated carbons and amine-modified materials for carbon dioxide capture –– a review[J]. Front Envir Sci Eng, 2013, 7(3): 326-340.

Viewed

Full text

Abstract

Cited

Shared

Discussed