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Efficient removal of uranium(VI) from aqueous solution by a novel phosphate-modified biochar supporting zero-valent iron composite

Environmental Science and Pollution Research (2023)Cite this article

Abstract

Uranium (U) is an important strategic resource as well as a heavy metal element with both chemical and radiotoxicity. At present, the rapid and efficient removal of uranium from wastewater remains a huge challenge for environmental protection and ecological security. In this paper, phosphate-modified biochar supporting nano zero-valent iron (PBC/nZVI) was triumphantly prepared and fully characterized. The introduction of polyphosphate can greatly increase the specific surface area of biochar pores, and then the zero-valent iron can be evenly distributed on the surface of material, thus leading to excellent removal performance of the PBC/nZVI for U(VI). The theoretical maximum U(VI) removal capacity of PBC/nZVI was up to 967.53 mg/g at pH 5. The results of adsorption kinetics, isotherm, and thermodynamics showed that the adsorption of uranium by PBC/nZVI was a monolayer physical adsorption and endothermic reaction. And the PBC/nZVI has favorable selectivity toward uranium against the interference of coexisting metal ions. Further mechanism studies show that the excellent uranium removal performance of PBC/nZVI is mainly attributed to the synergistic effect of physical adsorption and chemical reduction. This work proves that the PBC/nZVI has a wide application prospect in the field of uranium wastewater treatment.

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Data availability

All the data and materials applied in the study could be available from the corresponding author only on academic or other non-business requests.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (12175103), the Key R&D Program of Hunan Province (2018SK2029), the Hunan Provincial Natural Science Foundation for Excellent Young Scholars (2020JJ3028), the Scientifc Research Fund of Hunan Provincial Education Department (21A0259), and the Fund of Hengyang Key Laboratory (202150083891).

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Author notes

  1. Ziwei Tang and Zhongran Dai contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Public Health, Hengyang Medical School, University of South China, Hengyang, 421001, Hunan, People’s Republic of China

    Ziwei Tang, Mi Gong, Hong Chen, Xiayu Zhou, Yating Wang, Cong Jiang, Wanying Yu & Le Li

  2. Hengyang Key Laboratory for Comprehensive Prevention and Control of Uranium Contamination and its Health Hazards, University of South China, Hengyang, 421001, Hunan, People’s Republic of China

    Ziwei Tang, Mi Gong, Hong Chen, Xiayu Zhou, Yating Wang, Cong Jiang, Wanying Yu & Le Li

  3. Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory for Typical Environment Pollution and Health Hazard, University of South China, Hengyang, 421001, Hunan, People’s Republic of China

    Ziwei Tang, Mi Gong, Hong Chen, Xiayu Zhou, Yating Wang, Cong Jiang, Wanying Yu & Le Li

  4. Hunan Province Key Laboratory of Green Development Technology for Extremely Low Grade Uranium Resources, University of South China, Hengyang, 421001, Hunan, People’s Republic of China

    Zhongran Dai & Le Li

Authors
  1. Ziwei Tang
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  2. Zhongran Dai
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  3. Mi Gong
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  4. Hong Chen
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  9. Le Li
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Contributions

Ziwei Tang: conceptualization, methodology, validation, formal analysis, investigation, data curation, and writing—review and editing. Zhongran Dai: investigation, writing—review and editing, and supervision. Mi Gong: investigation. Hong Chen: data curation. Xiayu Zhou: investigation. Yating Wang: investigation. Cong Jiang: investigation. Wanying Yu: data curation. Le Li: validation, formal analysis, data curation, writing—review and editing, supervision, and funding acquisition.

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Correspondence to Le Li.

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Tang, Z., Dai, Z., Gong, M. et al. Efficient removal of uranium(VI) from aqueous solution by a novel phosphate-modified biochar supporting zero-valent iron composite. Environ Sci Pollut Res (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-25124-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-25124-9

Keywords

  • Uranium
  • Biochar
  • nZVI
  • Adsorption
  • Reduction