Hollow LDH nanowires as excellent adsorbents for organic dye

Template-free preparation of hollow/porous nanostructures has received significant research attention in recent years due to its simple operation process. In this work, we have successfully prepared hollow LDH nanowires via an efficient solution-based chemical process. By altering the concentration of urea, the morphologies of the as-synthesized LDH could be turned from disordered nanostructures to hollow nanowires. Moreover, the as-prepared hollow nanowires manifested micropore structure and high specific surface area. When the obtained hollow LDH was used as alkali adsorbent to remove the methyl orange (MO) dye from waste-water, it exhibited the fast and efficient adsorption ability with 90% MO dye removing in less than 10 min and the maximum adsorption (Q(max)) of the hollow LDH nanowires was 210 mg/g. Therefore, the as-obtained hollow LDH nanowires could be a promising candidate for industrial application for waste water treatment. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.