Preparation of LDH-modified cotton fabric based carbon aerogel as a highly efficient adsorbent for tellurium recovery

As a rare element with special properties, tellurium (Te) is an important resource that has been widely used in many fields. In this paper, a novel renewable cotton fabric based Zn–Al layered double hydroxide (LDH) functionalized carbon aerogel (ZALCA) was successfully prepared by a facile freeze-drying, carbonization and in situ growth method, which can be used for tellurium adsorption. The scanning electron microscopy results showed that the flowerlike LDH nano-sheets are growing evenly on the surface of carbon aerogel and each LDH nano-sheet has a similar shape and size. The nitrogen sorption analysis confirmed that mesoporous ZALCA has the pores centered at about 3–5 nm and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area of 186.38 m²/g. Adsorption experiment results show that the ZALCA has excellent adsorption properties for tellurium ions in tellurium-containing solutions, and the maximum adsorption capacity is 132 mg/g. After recycling 10 times, the ZALCA still displayed high tellurium absorption property implies that the ZALCA has outstanding reusability performance. Therefore, the preparation of ZALCA as a tellurium adsorbent from low-cost cotton has great application potential in the recovery of tellurium.