Mechanistic insights into heavy metals affinity in magnetic MnO2@Fe3O4/poly(m-phenylenediamine) core - shell adsorbent

Adsorption represents an attractive mean to remediate polluted water. Unfortunately, the surface positive charges, low surface area and complicated separation procedures inhibit the usability of poly (m-phenylenediamine) (PmPD) as an adsorbent for heavy metal removing. To overcome these drawbacks, a magnetic MnO2@Fe3O4/PmPD core -shell adsorbent was designed to remove heavy metals from water. The MnO2 shell, came from the redox reaction between KMnO4 and PmPD, increased the surface area and changed the surface electronegativity. MnO2@Fe3O4/PmPD could be easily separated from water. It showed a significant increase in heavy metals removal efficiency, with maximum capacities of 438.6 mg/g for Pb(II) and 121.5 mg/g for Cd(II), respectively. The affinity between heavy metals and MnO2@Fe3O4/PmPD were mainly due to electrostatic attraction, ion exchanges and coordinated interaction. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations further confirmed that Pb and Cd were bonded with O atoms. The calculated adsorption energy indicated that the (111) MnO, facet presented stronger adsorption affinity toward Pb(II) than Cd(II). Additionally, FM150 (150 mg) could regenerate 22 L Pb(II) wastewater upon single passage through the filterable column with a flux of 20 mL/ min. Thus, the present work demonstrates the promising potential of using MnO2@Fe3O4/PmPD for efficiently removing heavy metals from wastewater.