From illite/smectite clay to mesoporous silicate adsorbent for efficient removal of chlortetracycline from water

摘要

A series of mesoporous silicate adsorbents with superior adsorption performance for hazardous chlortetracycline(CTC) were sucessfully prepared via a facile one-pot hydrothermal reaction using low-cost illite/smectite(IS) clay,sodium silicate and magnesium sulfate as the starting materials.In this process,IS clay was "teared up" and then "rebuilt" as new porous silicate adsorbent with high specific surface area of 363.52 m^2/g(about 8.7 folds higher than that of IS clay) and very negative Zeta potential(- 34.5 mV).The inert Si- O- Si(Mg,Al) bonds in crystal framework of IS were broken to form Si(Al)- O^- groups with good adsorption activity,which greatly increased the adsorption sites served for holding much CTC molecules.Systematic evaluation on adsorption properties reveals the optimal silicate adsorbent can adsorb 408.81 mg/g of CTC(only 159.7 mg/g for raw IS clay) and remove 99.3%(only 46.5%for raw IS clay) of CTC from 100 mg/L initial solution(pH 3.51;adsorption temperature 30℃;adsorbent dosage,3 g/L).The adsorption behaviors of CTC onto the adsorbent follows the Langmuir isotherm model,Temkin equation and pseudo second-order kinetic model.The mesopore adsorption,electrostatic attraction and chemical association mainly contribute to the enhanced adsorption properties.As a whole,the high-efficient silicate adsorbent could be candidates to remove CTC from the wastewater with high amounts of CTC.