Synergistic effects of iron ion and PANI in biochar material for the efficient removal of Cr(VI)

The removal of hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) is one of the most significant and challenging goal in environmental treatment field due to its toxicity and potential carcinogenicity. In this study, a waste grape-fruit endothelium was selected as a low-cost, green and recyclable biomass material to be modified by iron ion and polyaniline (PANI) using biosorption-pyrolysis to obtain a novel biochar material (C-Fe-PANI), characterized by XPS, XRD and SEM. C-Fe-PANI was found to exhibit excellent removal capacity with Cr(VI) as a probe contaminant and the removal rate reached almost 100% in 135 min. Remarkably, a significant enhancement of the removal performance was found with the introduction of iron ion and PANI, which could be attributed to the synergistic effect of PANI and iron ion. This study provides a new perspective insight for the removal of Cr(VI) in the environmental field. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.