Hydrothermal synthesis of silico-manganese nanohybrid for Cu(II) adsorption from aqueous solution

A novel silico-manganese nanohybrid adsorbent (SMNA) was synthesized by a facile hydrothermal method, and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), nitrogen adsorption-desorption, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and zeta potential measurement. The adsorption of Cu(II) ions from aqueous solution on the SMNA was investigated with variations in contact time, pH and initial Cu(II) concentration. The results showed that hydrothermal method would generate nanowire/nanorod incomplete crystallite (delta-MnO2) adsorbent. The adsorption of Cu(II) onto SMNA increased sharply within 25 min and reached equilibrium gradually. The maximum adsorption capacities of SMNA for Cu(II) were similar to 40-88 mg g(-1), which was lower than delta-MnO2 (92.42 mg g(-1)) but had a lower pH dependency. As compared with delta-MnO2, higher adsorption capacities of SMNA (7.5-15 wt% of silica doping amount) for Cu(II) could be observed when pH of the aqueous solution was low (<4). The pseudo-second-order model was the best choice to describe the adsorption behavior of Cu(II) onto SMNA, suggesting that the removal of Cu(II) by the as-prepared adsorbents was dominated by migration of Cu(II). The possibility of Cu(II) recovery was also investigated and it revealed that SMNA was a promising recyclable adsorbent for removal of heavy metal ions in water and wastewater treatment. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.