Microstructure and surface control of MXene films for water purification

Xiuqiang Xie, Chi Chen, Nan Zhang, Zi-Rong Tang, Jianjun Jiang and Yi-Jun Xu ()
Additional contact information
Xiuqiang Xie: Fuzhou University
Chi Chen: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Nan Zhang: Fuzhou University
Zi-Rong Tang: Fuzhou University
Jianjun Jiang: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Yi-Jun Xu: Fuzhou University

Nature Sustainability, 2019, vol. 2, issue 9, 856-862

Abstract: Abstract Heavy metal ions (HMIs), such as those containing chromate and arsenic, are toxic and need to be removed from drinking water to protect public health. Films based on two-dimensional materials are promising regarding the removal of HMIs from water, but they typically use pressure-driven filtration. This study reports the application of two-dimensional titanium carbide (Ti3C2Tx MXene)-based films for pressure-free removal of multiple negatively and positively charged HMIs from water. The Ti3C2Tx MXene-based film’s microstructure was optimized by insertion of reduced graphene oxide between the layers, and the film’s surface was progressively hydroxylated to increase the accessibility of Ti3C2Tx, improve the film’s wettability and enhance the adsorption and reduction of HMIs. These steps synergistically improved the film’s HMI removal efficiency. This study provides a straightforward paradigm to manipulate the pivotal solid–liquid interactions for water purification under pressure-free conditions using two-dimensional materials-based films. Moreover, it could open a new vista of rationally designed, versatile, Ti3C2Tx-based films for target applications.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-019-0373-4 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natsus:v:2:y:2019:i:9:d:10.1038_s41893-019-0373-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/natsustain/

DOI: 10.1038/s41893-019-0373-4

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Sustainability is currently edited by Monica Contestabile

More articles in Nature Sustainability from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().