A team led by WU Zhengyan in Hefei institutes of physical science, Chinese Academy of Sciences developed a promising approach for removing Cr(VI). Their study was published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering with title of Functionalized Fe₃O₄@C nanospheres with adjustable structure for efficient hexavalent chromium removal.

Hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)), one of the highly toxic heavy metal ions, was generated mainly from industrial activities. Because of the carcinogenicity, mutagenicity, genotoxicity, and bioaccumulation through food chain, Cr(VI) displayed seriously harmful effects on health of human beings.

Nowadays, a variety of carbon-nanomaterials have been fabricated and used to remove Cr(VI). However, those materials possessed disadvantages of thin carbon layer, lack of functional groups and so on, which was unfavorable for their application in Cr(VI) treatment.

Therefore, it is urgent to develop a facile approach to fabricate carbon nanoparticles with thick carbon layer and abundant functional groups for efficient removal of Cr(VI).

To aim this, WU’s team developed a fabrication method for functionalized magnetic Fe₃O₄@C with adjustable microstructure to efficiently remove Cr(VI).

In their study, core-shell magnetic Fe₃O₄@C nanospheres functionalized with active chemical groups were synthesized via a one-step template-free solvothermal process.

The Fe₃O₄@C with carbon layer thickness of 100 nm displayed a superior adsorption and reduction capacity on Cr(VI) because of the high porosity, large specific surface area, and abundant chemical groups. Importantly, after Cr(VI) treatment, the resulting Fe₃O₄@C-Cr could be easily separated from water attributed to the high magnetization of Fe₃O₄@C.

This work provides a facile approach to fabricate Fe₃O₄@C with a porous thick carbon layer and thus excellent removal performance on Cr(VI), which may have a tremendous application potential.

This research was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Key Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Science and Technology Service Programs of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Grant of the President Foundation of Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Schematic diagram for the fabrication and application of Fe₃O₄@C for Cr(VI) removal. (Image by ZHOU Linglin)

Contact:

WU Zhengyan

Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (http://english.hf.cas.cn/)

Email: zywu@ipp.ac.cn