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Hydrothermal synthesis of a magnetic adsorbent from wasted iron mud for effective removal of heavy metals from smelting wastewater

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Abstract

A magnetic adsorbent (MA) was synthesized from wasted iron mud of a groundwater treatment plant using a novel one-step hydrothermal method. The results showed that Fe content of MA was 41.8 wt%, 2.5 times higher than that of iron mud, which was caused by hydrothermal dissolution of non-ferrous impurities under alkaline condition, such as quartz and albite, regardless of addition of ascorbic acid or not. Ferrihydrite was 92.7% in dry iron mud before adding ascorbic acid and gradually decreased to 58.1% by increasing the molar ratio of ascorbic acid to Fe following hydrothermal treatment. The strongest saturation magnetization of 16.29 emu/g was observed in the prepared MA-4 when the ascorbic acid to Fe molar ratio was 1. The highest surface site concentration of 1.31 mmol/g was observed in MA-2 when the ratio was 0.02. The mechanism of hydrothermal conversion of wasted iron mud to MA was reductive dissolution of ferrihydrite to form siderite, which was then reoxidized to maghemite. When 12.5 g/L of MA-2 was applied to treat smelting wastewater, over 99% removal of Cu2+, Zn2+, Pb2+, and Cd2+ was achieved. The major mechanisms of Cu2+ and Zn2+ adsorption by the adsorbent were cationic exchange.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51578118, 51238001, 51408110, 51678273, 51508079, and 51378098) and the Long-Term Program in “1000 Talent Plan for High-Level Foreign Experts” (Grant No. WQ20142200209).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Science and Technology Innovation Center for Municipal Wastewater Treatment and Water Quality Protection, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130117, China

    Suiyi Zhu, Ge Dong, Yang Yu, Wu Yang, Wei Fan, Dandan Zhou, Jiancong Liu, Leilei Zhang & Mingxin Huo

  2. Engineering Lab for Water Pollution Control and Resources Recovery, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130117, China

    Suiyi Zhu, Ge Dong, Wu Yang, Dandan Zhou, Jiancong Liu, Leilei Zhang, Mingxin Huo & Yi Wang

  3. Key Laboratory of Songliao Aquatic Environment (Ministry of Education), Jilin Jianzhu University, Changchun, 130117, China

    Yang Yu

  4. School of Environmental Science & Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Jiakuan Yang

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  1. Suiyi Zhu
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  2. Ge Dong
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  3. Yang Yu
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  4. Jiakuan Yang
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  5. Wu Yang
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  6. Wei Fan
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  7. Dandan Zhou
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  8. Jiancong Liu
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  10. Mingxin Huo
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  11. Yi Wang
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Correspondence to Wu Yang or Dandan Zhou.

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Zhu, S., Dong, G., Yu, Y. et al. Hydrothermal synthesis of a magnetic adsorbent from wasted iron mud for effective removal of heavy metals from smelting wastewater. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 22710–22724 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2378-3

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