Experimental and theoretical study on the adsorption mechanism of Amino trimethylphosphate (ATMP) functionalized hydroxyapatite on Pb (II) and Cd (II)

Amino trimethylposphonate(ATMP) functionalized HAP were synthesized with different ATMP addition (0, 5%, 10%, 15%) and the adsorption performance towards Pb2+ and Cd2+ were studied in an aqueous solution. Under the optimum condition, HAP with ATMP addition of 10% (10AT-HAP) displayed the most efficient adsorption performance with the adsorption capacity of 1458.79 mg/g and 321.26 mg/g towards Pb2+ and Cd2+, respectively, which improved 76% and 92% than that of the artificially prepared HAP in the laboratory, respectively. For both heavy metal ions, the adsorption mechanism also included ion exchange and surface complexation, in which the surface complexation played a predominant role. In addition, XRD showed that a new crystal phase was formed after Pb2+ adsorption, while no new phase appeared after Cd2+ adsorption, indicating that the adsorption mechanism of Pb2+ involved dissolution-precipitation. The fitting results of adsorption isotherm and kinetics showed that the adsorption of Pb2+ and Cd2+ on HAP and 10AT-HAP were well fitted by the Langmuir isotherm model and Pseudo-second model. Moreover, Multiwfn wavefunction program based on density functional theory (DFT) was applied to deeply probe and vividly visualize the interaction sites, interaction types, interaction strength and the essence of interactions between HAP and ATMP or ATMP-HAP composite and heavy metal ions.

Automated summary

ATMP functionalized HAP exhibited high adsorption performance towards Pb2+ and Cd2+, with ion exchange and surface complexation as the main adsorption mechanisms. XRD results showed different adsorption characteristics for Pb2+ and Cd2+, indicating the involvement of dissolution-precipitation in Pb2+ adsorption.