Self-assembly of α-MoO3 flower as a highly effective organics adsorbent for water purification

We report -MoO3 flowers as a highly effective organics adsorbent for the first time. With -MoO3 microfibers (MFs), -MoO3 flowers uniformly self-assemble on a carbon cloth, serving as a great organics scavenger. They not only provide a high specific surface area but also possess van der Waals force, both of which guarantee a high adsorption efficiency for multiple organics. Nearly 100% of Rhodamine B (RhB), methylene blue (MB), and crystal violet (CV) are rapidly adsorbed while flowing through the designed -MoO3 flower-based filtration device. Even after five recycling times, its high adsorption efficiency toward RhB remains unaffected. The adsorption capacity of -MoO3 flowers for RhB, MB, and CV reaches up to 4974, 6217, and 3886mg/m(2), respectively. Additionally, this novel adsorbent can adapt to a wide pH range, maintaining the excellent capacity of 4774 and 4473mg/m(2) toward RhB at pH of 2.0 and 12.0. The -MoO3 flowers can also adsorb other organics, including MO, noroxin, and tetracycline hydrochloride. Moreover, the free-standing -MoO3 flowers on a carbon cloth realize the adsorptive filtration for organics removal, which not only require no conditions and no energy consumption butalso avoid secondary pollution to the water as compared to the powdery adsorbents.