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Facile Synthesis of Thiol‐functionalized Mesoporous Silica – Their Role for Heavy Metal Removal Efficiency
Author(s) -
Lin LingChu,
Thirumavalavan Munusamy,
Lee JiunnFwu
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
clean – soil, air, water
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.444
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1863-0669
pISSN - 1863-0650
DOI - 10.1002/clen.201400231
Subject(s) - mesoporous material , mesoporous silica , adsorption , thiol , surface modification , covalent bond , mesoporous organosilica , materials science , specific surface area , metal , nuclear chemistry , chemical engineering , chemistry , organic chemistry , catalysis , engineering
Abstract A simple approach based on the covalent grafting of 3‐mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane groups onto the framework of two types of mesoporous silica C16 (surface area: 1568.72 m 2 /g; pore size: 3.07 nm) using hexadecyltrimethyl ammoniumbromide and C9 (surface area: 779.83 m 2 /g; pore size: 4.51 nm) using nonyltrimethyl ammoniumbromide as templates has been reported. Various techniques were employed to confirm the thiol functionalization. A considerable decline in the surface area, pore volume, and interestingly an enhancement in the pore size were observed for functionalized materials. The functionalized derivatives were able to bind quantitatively several folds Ag + and Hg 2+ ions compared to that of unmodified mesoporous silica and a comparative study with earlier reports indicated that the mesoporous silica discussed in this present work showed superior adsorption behavior. Mercapto‐functionalized mesoporous silica have not only exhibited an enhanced adsorption rate towards Ag + and Hg 2+ but also demonstrated that the maximum adsorption capacity of Ag + (C16 = 0.73 mg/g; C16‐SAn = 192.31 mg/g; C16‐SH = 250.00 mg/g; C9 = 0.66 mg/g; C9‐SAn = 181.82; C9‐SH = 185.85 mg/g) and Hg 2+ (C16 = 0.40 mg/g; C16‐SAn = 114.94 mg/g; C16‐SH = 126.58 mg/g; C9 = 0.31 mg/g; C9‐SAn = 108.70; C9‐SH = 112.36 mg/g) is hundred times higher than that of unmodified mesoporous silica. Thus, it is evident that these thiol‐functionalized mesoporous silica can be promising adsorbents for the treatment of Hg 2+ and Ag + contaminants in aqueous solution.