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Cysteine chemical modification for surface regulation of biochar and its application for polymetallic adsorption from aqueous solutions

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Abstract

Biochar (BC) has been widely used to remove heavy metals from wastewater. However, due to the hydrophobicity of BC and the lack of its surface functional groups, the effect of metal ions adsorption onto BC is limited. In order to improve the adsorption efficiency, l-cysteine was used to modify biochar derived from pomelo peel (PP) to regulate surface structure. The characteristics of BC and cysteine/biochar composite (cys/BC) were analyzed by various characterization methods. Results showed that the hydrophilicity of biochar was enhanced, and the number of surface functional groups was increased, resulting to strong adsorption ability of Ag(I) (618.9 mg/g), Pb(II) (274.5 mg/g), and As(V) (34.7 mg/g) for cys/BC, which increased approximately by 15%, 35%, and 29% compared with that of BC, respectively. The adsorption process of Pb(II) onto cys/BC was fitted better by the Freundlich isotherm model and for Ag(I) and As(V) by the Langmuir isotherm model. Moreover, the adsorption kinetics followed pseudo-second-order equation and the adsorption process was controlled by the intraparticle diffusion for Ag(I), Pb(II), and As(V) adsorption onto cys/BC. In addition, the adsorption capacities of cys/BC for Ag(I), Pb(II), and As(V) decreased slightly after five adsorption/desorption cycles. Finally, the multiple adsorption mechanisms including functional groups, pore adsorption, surface complexation, and cations-π were analyzed. The paper demonstrated that the cys/BC composite could be reused as effective adsorbents for removing contaminants in the environment.

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Funding

This work was supported by Science and Technology Development Special Fund of Guangdong Province (2017A070712013) and the Analytical and Testing Center of SCNU of TEM measurement (No. 16 KJ20).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environment, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Baoqing Li & Jianzhang Fang

  2. Guangdong Engineering and Technology Research Center of Solid Waste Resource Recovery and Heavy Metal Pollution Control, Guangdong Polytechnic of Environmental Protection Engineering, Foshan, 528216, China

    Baoqing Li, Jiaxin Gong, Zhiran Zheng & Wei Fan

  3. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Chemical Pollution and Environmental Safety & MOE Key Laboratory of Theoretical Chemistry of Environment, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Jianzhang Fang

  4. Guangdong Technology Research Center for Ecological Management and Remediation of Urban Water System, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Jianzhang Fang

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  1. Baoqing Li
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  2. Jiaxin Gong
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  3. Jianzhang Fang
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  4. Zhiran Zheng
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  5. Wei Fan
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Correspondence to Baoqing Li or Jianzhang Fang.

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Li, B., Gong, J., Fang, J. et al. Cysteine chemical modification for surface regulation of biochar and its application for polymetallic adsorption from aqueous solutions. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 1061–1071 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-10558-w

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