Reclaimable MoS2 Sponge Absorbent for Drinking Water Purification Driven by Solar Energy

With the fast development of modern industries, scarcity of freshwater resources caused by heavy metal pollution (i.e., Hg2+) has become a severe issue for human beings. Herein, a 3D-MoS2 sponge as an excellent absorbent is fabricated for mercury removal due to its multidimensional adsorption pathwa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental science & technology 2022-08, Vol.56 (16), p.11718-11728
Main Authors: Li, Meng, Liu, Bowen, Guo, Hongmin, Wang, Haotian, Shi, Quanyu, Xu, Mengwen, Yang, Mengqing, Luo, Xubiao, Wang, Lidong
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Absorbents
Adsorbents
Bioaccumulation
Biological magnification
Dimethylmercury
Drinking water
Evaporation
Evaporation rate
Evaporators
Freshwater resources
Heavy metals
Irradiation
Landfills
Mercury
Mercury (metal)
Methylmercury
Molybdenum disulfide
Photothermal conversion
Polyethylene glycol
Radiation
Solar energy
Treatment and Resource Recovery
Waste disposal sites
Waste treatment
Water purification
Water shortages
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Summary:With the fast development of modern industries, scarcity of freshwater resources caused by heavy metal pollution (i.e., Hg2+) has become a severe issue for human beings. Herein, a 3D-MoS2 sponge as an excellent absorbent is fabricated for mercury removal due to its multidimensional adsorption pathways, which decreases the biomagnification effect of methylmercury in water bodies. Furthermore, a secondary water purification strategy is employed to harvest drinkable water with the exhausted adsorbents, thus alleviating the crisis of drinking water shortage. Compared to the conventional landfill treatment, the exhausted MoS2 sponge absorbents are further functionalized with a poly­(ethylene glycol) (PEG) layer to prevent the heavy metals from leaking and enhance the hydrophilicity for photothermal conversion. The fabricated evaporator displays excellent evaporation rates of ∼1.45 kg m–2 h–1 under sunlight irradiation and produces freshwater with Hg2+ under the WHO drinking water standard at 0.001 mg L–1. These results not only assist in avoiding the biodeposition effect of mercury in water but also provide an environment-friendly strategy to recycle hazardous adsorbents for water purification.
ISSN:0013-936X
1520-5851
DOI:10.1021/acs.est.2c03033