EFFICIENT REMOVAL OF AZOLE COMPOUNDS AND HEAVY METALS BY TERNARY CROSS-COUPLED NANOHYBRIDS

Abstract

Azole compounds (AZCs) have emerged as the organic pharmaceutical/industrial active chemicals, and need to be removed from aqueous environments. The ternary cross-coupled nanohybrid introduced a unique structure of regular sub-lattice active sites of magnetic-polymer alloy (MPA) Fe3O4@PAN with novel class of various oblique intersections. The formed parallel adjacent inter-fringes on the adsorbents agree well with regular planes around 0.2-0.4 nm distances, suggesting that the mesoporous formation of MPA. The mesoporous forming of MPA is assumed to the abundant amount of available functional groups, exceptional stable superparamagnetism, binding affinity of adsorbent-contaminant interaction, and surface stability of our current adsorbents. These led to the synergistic for AZC adsorption and wide ranges of potential applications for various practical pharmaceutical/industrial wastewater treatments. In current dissertation, the synthesis and related-applications are investigated with special emphases on the applications in wastewater treatment areas. In brief, this dissertation presents the following research findings: 1. Facile and scalable synthetic pathway of ternary cross-coupled nanohybrids, which was prepared via directly in situ Fe3O4 co-precipitated with polyacrylonitrile (PAN) polymerization-dispersed. The prepared Fe3O4@PAN was cross-coupled with reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and activated carbon (AC), inside the framework of γ-aminopropyltriethoxysilane [γ-APTES] dispersion for highly promoted AZC removal; 2. Highly potential recoverable separation from adsorption system by a magnet within several seconds, then exhibited the feasibility for pharmaceutical/industrial wastewater treatment facilities; 3. A better understanding of the plausible interaction mechanisms has been proposed based on the strongly chemisorbed interactions and the binding affinity of adsorbent and AZCs; 4. Homogeneously-dispersed MPA of Fe3O4@PAN embedded within nitrile (C=N), terminated-amino (NH2) and silanol (Si-OH) forming on rGO plane and AC particulates had been successfully synthesized; 5. Due to the lack of experimental and theoretical studies (including publications and patents), and no data were found, for AZCs removal, encouraged the authors to find the key characteristics and build up the reasonable framework/descriptor for AZC adsorption by the green and easy-to-cover nanohybrids; 6. The effects of adsorbent properties in views of adsorption kinetics and isotherms, pH, contact time, surface charges, magnetization field analysis, reaction temperature, and active functional groups; 7. The obtained maximum adsorption capacities of adsorbent to AZCs were higher than the latest reported adsorbents, thus exhibited various applications for agricultural/pharmaceutical wastewater treatments; 8. The newly found oblique intersections of various regular sub-lattice sites on these nanohybrids were attributed to the surface stability of ternary nanohybrids, the formation of mesoporous of MPA, abundant available surface functionalities, and enhanced binding affinity of adsorbent-contaminant chemical interactions, which have not previously been published.