Abstract
The contamination of water systems by heavy metals greatly threatens human health and ecological safety. An efficient adsorbent is critical for the removal of these contaminants. In this work, magnetic Ni3Si2O5(OH)4 nanotubes (NTs) have been synthesized via in situ hydrothermal reduction and further functionalized by grafting poly(4-vinyl pyridine) (P4VP) brushes on its surface via atom transfer radical polymerization. Characterizations by Fourier transform infrared, X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy proved that P4VP was successfully grafted on the surface of magnetic Ni3Si2O5(OH)4 NTs. The resultant Ni3Si2O5(OH)4-g-P4VP NTs are efficient nanosorbents for removing Cr(VI) anions from water. The Cr(VI) adsorption capacity of Ni3Si2O5(OH)4-g-P4VP NTs reaches 1.49 mmol/g at a pH of 3. The pseudo-second-order kinetic model and the Freundlich isothermal model are suitable to describe the adsorption process. The analysis using Weber-Morris and Boyd models indicates that both intraparticle diffusion and external film diffusion affect the Cr(VI) adsorption process. The adsorption enthalpy is estimated to be 18.37 kJ/mol. More than 90% of the Cr(VI) adsorption capacity of the Ni3Si2O5(OH)4-g-P4VP NTs remains after eight adsorption and desorption cycles.