Rapid and Effective Absorption of Mercury(II) in Aqueous Solution Using CuS Composites Supported by SiO2 Aerogel

Abstract

Nowadays, pollution caused by heavy metals has become an urgent problem to be solved today, especially Hg(II) in heavy metals can cause diarrhea, neurological weakness and serious life threatening. Therefore, new materials are urgently needed to adsorb Hg(II) ions in water. Herein, we loaded sulfide (CuS) particles onto SiO2 aerogel obtained from boron slag, which was used to prepare new SiO2/CuS adsorbents. The influence of pH in the solution, the initial Hg(II) ion concentration, contact time, and co-existing cations on the adsorption behavior of mercury(II) ions by SiO2/CuS was investigated. At the optimal conditions, the removal rate and adsorption amount of mercury(II) ions by SiO2/CuS reached 93.16% and 232.90 mg/g within 60 min. The results show that the adsorption process of SiO2/CuS is consistent with the PSO model. The adsorption mechanism of SiO2/CuS on Hg(II) ions is a chemisorption process.