Ultrafast and efficient removal of anionic dyes from wastewater by polyethyleneimine-modified silica nanoparticles

Trace anionic dyes in wastewater are difficult to be rapidly and efficiently removed because they are completely soluble and poorly biodegradable. Herein, a facile and environmentally friendly adsorbent was fabricated via the surface functioned SiO2 with abundant amine groups of polyethyleneimine (PEI). The structural characterization indicated that PEI was successfully immobilized on the SiO2 surface. The adsorption performance of SiO2-PEI was evaluated using acid orange H (AOII) as model pollutant. The adsorption of AOII on SiO2-PEI displayed high removal rates in the pH range of 2.0-9.0, and exhibited ultrafast removal (99.1% removal rate at 10 min). The adsorption behavior fitted well with the Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic model, and the maximum uptake capability of AOII was higher than 705.3 mg/g. The excellent adsorption capacity of AOIIon SiO2-PEI mainly relied on the electrostatic attraction between the sulfonic acid group of AOIIand amine group of PEI in the adsorption process. Additionally, other anionic dyes like acid fuchsin and direct sky blue 5B could also be fast and efficiently removed by SiO2-PEI. This work is expected to open new possibilities for the ultrafast removal of anionic dye pollutants. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.