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MoS 2 Nanosheets with Widened Interlayer Spacing for High‐Efficiency Removal of Mercury in Aquatic Systems
Author(s) -
Ai Kelong,
Ruan Changping,
Shen Mengxia,
Lu Lehui
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
advanced functional materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.069
H-Index - 322
eISSN - 1616-3028
pISSN - 1616-301X
DOI - 10.1002/adfm.201601338
Subject(s) - mercury (programming language) , materials science , environmental remediation , sulfur , chloride , molybdenum disulfide , nanotechnology , environmental chemistry , molybdenum , metallurgy , contamination , chemistry , computer science , ecology , biology , programming language
Molybdenum disulphide (MoS 2 ) has been an attractive target for investigations in the fields of catalysis, sensing, energy storage, electronics, and optoelectronics. However, its potential application in the important area of environmental cleanup has not yet been effectively explored. With an intrinsically sulfur‐rich characteristic and unique 2D structure, MoS 2 should be capable of mercury capture and removal. However, successful attempts to apply MoS 2 to mercury removal are quite rare, presumably because the vast majority of sulfur atoms are located inside the bulk of MoS 2 and are therefore inaccessible for mercury ions. Here, the first experimental evidence that MoS 2 nanosheets with widened interlayer spacing are capable of mercury capture, with an extremely high mercury uptake capacity closely matching the theoretically predicted value (2506 mg g −1 ) and the largest distribution coefficient value (3.53 × 10 8 mL g −1 ) is provided. Remarkably, a single treatment of industrial wastewater (polyvinyl chloride industry) with this modified MoS 2 could efficiently reduce the mercury concentration (126 p.p.b.) below U.S. Environmental Protection Agency limits for drinking water standards. The findings open up the possibility of expanding the applications of transition metal dichalcogenides in environmental remediation.