Making Pb Adsorption-Saturated Attapulgite with Excellent Photocatalysis Properties through a Vulcanization Reaction and Its Application for MB Wastewater Degradation

Xiao Zhang, Chen Chen (), Ting Cheng, Mingyue Wen, Lei Wang and Fenxu Pan
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Xiao Zhang: School of Environmental Ecology, Jiangsu City Vocational College, Nanjing 210017, China
Chen Chen: School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 212100, China
Ting Cheng: School of Environmental Ecology, Jiangsu City Vocational College, Nanjing 210017, China
Mingyue Wen: School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 212100, China
Lei Wang: School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 212100, China
Fenxu Pan: School of Environmental Ecology, Jiangsu City Vocational College, Nanjing 210017, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 16, 1-16

Abstract: Attapulgite (AT) is a clay mineral with rich reserves in China, and it has good adsorption activity for Pb-containing wastewater. However, as a hazardous waste, the treatment of Pb adsorption-saturated attapulgite was quite difficult. In this work, through a simple vulcanization reaction, the waste Pb adsorption-saturated attapulgite (AT@Pb) was transformed into composite materials (AT@PbS) with good photocatalytic performance. After comprehensive material characterization (including XRD, TEM, XPS, and UV-Vis), the photocatalytic degradation performance and mechanism of AT@PbS for methylene blue (MB) were investigated. The results revealed that AT@PbS was a composite material of attapulgite nanorods (500–600 nm) and nanosquare PbS particles (80–100 nm). Additionally, AT@PbS displayed good visible light absorption, improved photo-electric properties, excellent photodegradation performance for MB, and recycling stability. Moreover, the energy band range of AT@PbS was about −0.043 V to 1.367 V. The photo-generated holes and their derived hydroxyl radicals were the main active species for MB degradation. This work not only provides a new approach to construct the composite photocatalyst, but also demonstrates the possibility of the comprehensive utilization of heavy metal adsorbents for wastewater degradation.

Keywords: attapulgite; PbS; adsorption-saturated; photocatalysis; MB (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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