Many natural water sources and industrial wastewaters contain low concentrations of metals and other contaminants. Therefore, an efficient and economical method for low-level contaminant removal and recovery is needed. The purpose of the research is to improve and modify a newly developed continuous flow ion exchange process for expansion to a variety of non-industrial applications, including removal of metal ions from the Upper Clark Fork River Watershed. The process involves a dual column reactor designed to capture metal ions using 90–105 μm spherical, functionalized silica gel coated magnetite particles, targeting copper ions with future expansion to additional metals, such as manganese and zinc. The optimization of nanoparticle synthesis and dispersion is ongoing with variables that include pH, metal ion concentration, nanoparticle concentration, and temperature. Additional focus involves maximizing contaminant capture, with current values of 0.19 mmol Cu/g Fe3O4 for magnetite and 0.25 mmol Cu/g Fe3O4 for silica-coated magnetite. 
                        more » 
                        « less   
                    
                            
                            Metal Ions Removal from Organic Solvents using MXene-Based Membranes
                        
                    
    
            We investigated the applicability of membranes, prepared with Ti3C2Tx MXene as the active layer, for metal ion removal from an organic solvent. The removal of various mixed metal ions from propylene glycol monomethyl ether acetate, commonly used in the microelectronics industry, was evaluated. The MXene membrane exhibited over 90% removal efficiency for metal ions such as Li, Ca, Cr, Fe, Ni, and Co and over 80% for metal ions such as Al, V, and Pb from a solution containing 17 metal ions. This result highlights the potential of MXene as an effective material for ion removal from organic solvents. 
        more » 
        « less   
        
    
                            - Award ID(s):
- 2238147
- PAR ID:
- 10535786
- Publisher / Repository:
- ACS
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- ACS Applied Engineering Materials
- Volume:
- 1
- Issue:
- 10
- ISSN:
- 2771-9545
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 2452 to 2457
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
- 
            
- 
            Heavy metal cations such as Ag+, Pb2+, and Hg2+ can accumulate in living organisms, posing severe risks to biological systems, including humans. Therefore, removing heavy metal cations from wastewater is crucial before discharging them to the environment. However, trace levels and high-capacity removal of the heavy metals remain a critical challenge. This work demonstrates the synthesis and characterization of [Mo2S12]2− intercalated cobalt aluminum-layered double hydroxide, CoAl―Mo2S12―LDH (CoAl―Mo2S12), and its remarkable sorption properties for heavy metals. This material shows high efficiency for removing over 99.9% of Ag+, Cu2+, Hg2+, and Pb2+ from 10 ppm aqueous solutions with a distribution constant, Kd, as high as 107 mL/g. The selectivity order for removing these ions, determined from the mixed ion state experiment, was Pb2+ < Cu2+ ≪ Hg2+ < Ag+. This study also suggests that CoAl―Mo2S12 is not selective for Ni2+, Cd2+, and Zn2+ cations. CoAl―Mo2S12 is an efficient sorbent for Ag+, Cu2+, Hg2+, and Pb2+ ions at pH~12, with the removal performance of both Ag+ and Hg2+ cations retaining > 99.7% across the pH range of ~2 to 12. Our study also shows that the CoAl―Mo2S12 is a highly competent silver cation adsorbent exhibiting removal capacity (qm) as high as ~918 mg/g compared with the reported data. A detailed mechanistic analysis of the post-treated solid samples with Ag+, Hg2+, and Pb2+ reveals the formation of Ag2S, HgS, and PbMoO4, respectively, suggesting the precipitation reaction mechanism.more » « less
- 
            Abstract With the increasing demand for developing large‐energy‐density and safe batteries, a reliable lithium metal as an anode becomes more and more important in various lithium metal and solid‐state batteries. On the basis of better lithium regulation from MXene, a lithiophilic lithium metal surface is designed by introducing a 2D hybrid coating that consists of a thin covalent organic framework (COF‐1) modified MXene layer (denoted as COF‐MXene‐Li). The abundant lithiophilic boroxine sites on 2D COF‐1 attract lithium ions while the MXene further regulates lithium homogeneous nucleation and growth, thus preventing dendrite formation. The coin cell battery paired with LiNi0.8Mn0.1Co0.1O2(NMC811) as cathode material displays 17% more capacity retention compared with pure lithium metal after 400 cycles at 0.5C.Over 81.4% capacity retention along with 99.96% Coulombic efficiency (CE) of a 1.0 Ah pouch cell versus LiNi0.8Co0.15Al0.05O2(NCA) after 250 cycles is received. The assembled 1.6 Ah pouch cell with NMC811 show an energy density of up to 366.7 Wh Kg−1and an actual energy density based on the whole cell of up to 339.7 Wh Kg−1. The improved cycling stability particularly in pouch cells opens broad applications for this hybrid coating modified lithium metal as anode electrode in a variety of large‐energy‐density battery systems.more » « less
- 
            Abstract For rare‐earth separation, selective crystallization into metal‐organic frameworks (MOFs) offers new opportunities. Especially important is the development of MOF platforms with high selectivity toward target ions. Here we report a MOF platform (CPM‐66) with low‐coordination‐number environment for rare‐earth ions. This platform is highly responsive to the size variation of rare‐earth ions and shows exceptional ion‐size selectivity during crystallization. CPM‐66 family are based on M3O trimers (M=6‐coordinated Sc, In, Er‐Lu) that are rare for lanthanides. We show that the size matching between urea‐type solvents and metal ions is crucial for their successful synthesis. We further show that CPM‐66 enables a dramatic multi‐fold increase in separation efficiency over CPM‐29 with 7‐coordinated ions. This work provides some insights into methods to prepare low‐coordinate MOFs from large ions and such MOFs could serve as high‐efficiency platforms for lanthanide separation, as well as other applications.more » « less
- 
            Capacitive deionization (CDI) technologies have gained intense attention for water purification and desalination in recent years. Inexpensive and widely available porous carbon materials have enabled the fast growth of electrosorption research, highlighting the promise of CDI as a potentially cost-effective technology to remove ions. Whereas the main focus of CDI has been on bulk desalination, there has been a recent shift towards electrosorption for selective ion separations. Heavy metals are pollutants that can have severe health impacts and are present in both industrial wastewater and groundwater leachates. Heavy metal ions, such as chromium, cadmium, or arsenic, are of great concern to traditional treatment technologies, due to their low concentration and the presence of competing species. The modification/functionalization of porous carbon and recent developments of faradaic and redox-active materials have offered a new avenue for selective ion-binding of heavy metal contaminants. Here, we review the progress in electrosorptive technologies for heavy metal separations. We provide an overview of the wide applicability of carbon-based electrodes for heavy metal removal. In parallel, we highlight the trend toward modification of carbon materials, new developments in faradaic interfaces, and the underlying physico-chemical mechanisms that promote selective heavy metal separations.more » « less
 An official website of the United States government
An official website of the United States government 
				
			 
					 
					
 
                                    