High-Throughput Metal Trap: Sulfhydryl-Functionalized Wood Membrane Stacks for Rapid and Highly Efficient Heavy Metal Ion Removal

• Published in: ACS applied materials & interfaces 2020-04, Vol.12 (13), p.15002-15011
• Main Authors: Yang, Zi, Liu, Hanwen, Li, Juan, Yang, Ke, Zhang, Zhengze, Chen, Fengjuan, Wang, Baodui
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adsorption; Cellulose - chemistry; Copper - chemistry; Copper - isolation & purification; Environmental Restoration and Remediation - methods; Ions - chemistry; Kinetics; Metals, Heavy - chemistry; Metals, Heavy - isolation & purification; Porosity; Sulfhydryl Compounds - chemistry; Waste Water - chemistry; Water Pollutants, Chemical - chemistry; Water Pollutants, Chemical - isolation & purification; Wood - chemistry
• ISSN: 1944-8244; 1944-8252
• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.9b19734

Heavy metal pollution is a severe problem worldwide. Great efforts have been devoted in developing effective and eco-friendly ways to remove heavy metal ions from contaminated water. However, challenges remain in terms of the high cost, the complex preparation processes required, low efficiency, and difficulties in scaling-up. Here, we report a sulfhydryl-functionalized wood (SH-wood) membrane featuring three-dimensional mesoporous and low-tortuosity lumens, which serve as multisite metal traps to achieve highly efficient heavy metal ion removal from wastewater. Benefiting from the unique microstructure of wood, the resulting membrane exhibits a high saturation uptake capacity of 169.5, 384.1, 593.9, and 710.0 mg·g–1 for Cu2+, Pb2+, Cd2+, and Hg2+ ions, respectively. Meanwhile, the SH-wood membrane can be easily regenerated at least eight times without apparent performance loss. Furthermore, stacking multilayers of the SH-wood filter is designed. Because of its high yet universal heavy metal ion absorbance capability, the multilayer SH-wood filter can effectively remove diverse heavy metal ions from real contaminated water, meeting the WHO standards while also displaying a high flux rate of 1.3 × 103 L·m–2·h–1. Our work presents a promising strategy for the scalable and highly efficient removal of heavy metal ions from sewage for environmental remediation.