Effective And Simple Removal Of Hg From Real Waters By A Robust Bio ...

Jump to main content Jump to site search Issue 3, 2022

• Previous Article
• Next Article

From the journal:

Environmental Science: Nano

Effective and simple removal of Hg from real waters by a robust bio-nanocomposite†

Eddy M. Domingues, *a Gil Gonçalves, a Bruno Henriques, b Eduarda Pereirabc and Paula A. A. P. Marques *a Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

a TEMA, Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal E-mail: eddy@ua.pt, paulam@ua.pt

b LAQV-REQUIMTE, Department of Chemistry, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal

c Central Laboratory of Analysis, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal

Abstract

This work describes a novel method for integrating a graphene oxide/polyethyleneimine (GOPEI) nanocomposite into a natural three-dimensional scaffold of marine spongin (MS). The objective is to exploit GOPEI's superior performance for sorption of Hg from real water matrices at a realistic low initial Hg concentration (50 μg L−1) and to overcome one of the GOPEI nanocomposite's limitations, which is shared by other nanocomposites: its disintegration into fine particulates over time when dispersed in water, requiring a subsequent step of filtration or centrifugation. To facilitate the sorption process in general, we considered encapsulating the GOPEI in MS. Additionally, because MS has a high affinity for Hg, a synergistic effect on Hg removal was anticipated. GOPEI was infused layer by layer into the MS cubes by electrostatic contact between the oppositely charged GO and PEI, up to three successive layers. To prevent the generated layers from detaching, the materials were coated with a layer of GOPEI-infused alginate (Alg) (calcium cross-linked) that enabled the sorbate to diffuse freely without leaching the sorbent. The nanocomposite finally surpassed the original GOPEI and MS materials in terms of Hg sorption in ultrapure (MQ) and bottled water, with removal (R, %) of 97.3% and 96.5%, respectively, confirming the predicted synergistic effect. MS and MSGOPEI3–Alg both have a fairly comparable R% of approximately 90% in seawater. Cyclic mechanical compression testing in water was used to evaluate the novel nanocomposite material's robustness. There was no evidence of disintegration, indicating its simplicity of use.

• This article is part of the themed collection: Nanomaterial applications in water

You have access to this article Please wait while we load your content... Something went wrong. Try again? About Cited by Related Download options Please wait...

Supplementary files

• Supplementary information PDF (1720K)

Article information

DOI https://doi.org/10.1039/D1EN00764E Article type Paper Submitted 18 Aug 2021 Accepted 03 Feb 2022 First published 04 Feb 2022

Download Citation

Environ. Sci.: Nano, 2022,9, 1156-1167 BibTex EndNote MEDLINE ProCite ReferenceManager RefWorks RIS

Permissions

Request permissions

Effective and simple removal of Hg from real waters by a robust bio-nanocomposite

E. M. Domingues, G. Gonçalves, B. Henriques, E. Pereira and P. A. A. P. Marques, Environ. Sci.: Nano, 2022, 9, 1156 DOI: 10.1039/D1EN00764E

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Tweet Share

Search articles by author

Eddy M. Domingues Gil Gonçalves Bruno Henriques Eduarda Pereira Paula A. A. P. Marques

Fetching data from CrossRef. This may take some time to load.

Loading related content

Spotlight

Advertisements

This website collects cookies to deliver a better user experience. See how this site uses Cookies. Do not sell my personal data. Este site coleta cookies para oferecer uma melhor experiência ao usuário. Veja como este site usa Cookies. Publishing

Journals

• Current Journals
• Archive Journals
• All Journals

Books

• Browse Books
• Series
• For Authors and Editors
• About

Databases

• Literature Updates
• ChemSpider
• The Merck Index*
• MarinLit

More

• For Members
• For Librarians
• Subscribe
• RSS Feeds
• Blogs
• Chemistry World
• Education in Chemistry
• Open Access
• Historical Collection