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Tunable adsorption behavior of silica materials in the removal of dense non-aqueous phase liquids

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Abstract

Mesoporous silica material has dual characteristics including adsorption of organic contaminants and transport through the sediments, making it an ideal material as a platform for zerovalent iron particles in the in situ remediation of dense non-aqueous phase liquids such as trichloroethylene. In this paper, tunable adsorption behavior of silica materials was quantitatively investigated by batches of equilibrium experiments. Significant enhancement in adsorption capacity was observed on mesoporous organo-silica particles as a consequence of the functionalization of particle surface from hydrophilicity to hydrophobicity. The fact that there is a wide difference in adsorption capacities between the non-functionalized mesoporous silica (MCM-41) and the alkyl-functionalized mesoporous silica prompted a study to control adsorption levels by simply adjusting the amount of methyl triethoxysilane (MTES) precursor in a mixture of MTES and tetramethoxysilane. In comparison with the most commonly used adsorbent activated carbon, the higher yield of adsorbent of 83 ± 2.6% was observed for mesoporous methyl silica particles. Particle characterizations were performed by means of X-ray powder diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller, thermogravimetric analysis and Fourier transform infrared measurements.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grant No. 31671797), Natural Science Foundation of Anhui University (Grant No. 2017KJA123) and the Youth talent support program of Anhui Polytechnic University (Grant No. 2016BJRRC006).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biochemical Engineering, Anhui Polytechnic University, Beijing Middle Road, Wuhu, 241000, Anhui, People’s Republic of China

    Fei Ge, Qisen Ma, Longbao Zhu, Siwen Xiang, Wanzhen Li, Ping Song, Yugui Tao & Guocheng Du

  2. School of Food and Environment Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, Liaoning, People’s Republic of China

    Jingjing Zhan

  3. Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, People’s Republic of China

    Guocheng Du

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  1. Fei Ge
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  2. Qisen Ma
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  3. Longbao Zhu
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Correspondence to Yugui Tao.

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Ge, F., Ma, Q., Zhu, L. et al. Tunable adsorption behavior of silica materials in the removal of dense non-aqueous phase liquids. J Mater Sci 53, 1801–1809 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-017-1626-0

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