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Thiocyanate Removal from Aqueous Solution by a Synthetic CoAl-Layered Double Hydroxide with Nitrate Intercalation

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Abstract

In this work, CoAl-layered double hydroxide (CoAl-LDH) was synthesized by a facile one-step process and utilized as an adsorbent for the removal of thiocyanate (SCN−) from environmental water. The characterization results revealed that CoAl-LDH presents a homogeneous nanosized plate with intercalation of NO3− in the interlayer space. The main factors affecting the removal efficiencies were investigated, and results revealed that CoAl-LDH possessed high removal efficiencies for SCN− and was suitable for a wide range of pH and ambient temperature conditions. Furthermore, the results of the mechanism analysis revealed that the mechanism of adsorption of SCN− by CoAl-LDH mainly includes interlayer ion exchange, electrostatic interactions, and surface ligand exchange. Model fitting of the kinetic data showed that SCN− sorption on CoAl-LDH followed the pseudo-second-order model and the removal rate of SCN− could reach 91.4% with 10 min contact time. Freundlich adsorption isotherm model could describe the adsorption process most accurately, and the maximum adsorption values of SCN− were 187 mg/g at 25℃ and pH 6.0. Meanwhile, the spent CoAl-LDH could be regenerated in Fe(NO3)3 solution and was reused up to four cycles. The overall results demonstrate that CoAl-LDH had a great application potential in the removal of SCN− from aqueous solution.

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Data Availability

The authors declare that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the paper and its Supplementary Information files. Should any raw data files be needed in another format they are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. XDA23030302) and Shangrao Major Technical Research Projects: Leading the Charge with Open Competition (No. 2021A001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Complex Systems, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Jingmin Yan, Zhengchen Li, Xiang Liu, Peng Qian & Shufeng Ye

  2. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Jingmin Yan & Xiang Liu

  3. Innovation Academy for Green Manufacture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Peng Qian & Shufeng Ye

  4. Beijing Shangli Foreign Language School, Beijing, 100190, China

    Xikai Liu

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Yan, J., Li, Z., Liu, X. et al. Thiocyanate Removal from Aqueous Solution by a Synthetic CoAl-Layered Double Hydroxide with Nitrate Intercalation. Water Air Soil Pollut 234, 579 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-023-06593-1

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