Selective removal of heavy metal ions from aqueous solutions with surface functionalized silica nanoparticles by different functional groups

• Published in: Journal of Central South University Vol. 21; no. 9; pp. 3575 - 3579
• Main Authors: Kong, Xiang-feng, Yang, Bin, Xiong, Heng, Zhou, Yang, Xue, Sheng-guo, Xu, Bao-qiang, Wang, Shi-xing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Heidelberg Central South University 01.09.2014
• Subjects: Engineering; Metallic Materials; selective removal; industrial silica fume; heavy metal ions; surface functionalization
• ISSN: 2095-2899; 2227-5223
• DOI: 10.1007/s11771-014-2338-0

The industrial silica fume pretreated by nitric acid at 80 °C was re-used in this work. Then, the obtained silica nanoparticles were surface functionalized by silane coupling agents, such as (3-Mercaptopropyl) triethoxysilane (MPTES) and (3-Amincpropyl) trithoxysilane (APTES). Some further modifications were studied by chloroaceetyl choride and 1,8-Diaminoaphalene for amino modified silica. The surface functionalized silica nanoparticles were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FI-IR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The prepared adsorbent of surface functionalized silica nanoparticles with differential function groups were investigated in the selective adsorption about Pb 2+ , Cu 2+ , Hg 2+ , Cd 2+ and Zn 2+ ions in aqueous solutions. The results show that the (3-Mercaptopropyl) triethoxysilane functionalized silica nanoparticles (SiO 2 -MPTES) play an important role in the selective adsorption of Cu 2+ and Hg 2+ , the (3-Amincpropyl) trithoxysilane (APTES) functionalized silica nanoparticles (SiO 2 -APTES) exhibited maximum removal efficiency towards Pb 2+ and Hg 2+ , the 1,8-Diaminoaphalene functionalized silica nanoparticles was excellent for removal of Hg 2+ at room temperature, respectively.