Regenerable, innovative porous silicon-based polymer-derived ceramics for removal of methylene blue and rhodamine B from textile and environmental waters.

The presence of residual color in treated textile wastewater above the regulation limits is still a critical issue in many textile districts. Innovative, polymer-derived ceramics of the Si-C-O system were here synthesized in order to obtain porous nanocomposite materials where a free carbon phase is dispersed into a silicon carbide/silicon oxycarbide network. The sorbents were comprehensively characterized for the removal of two model water-soluble dyes (i.e., the cation methylene blue and the zwitterion rhodamine B). Adsorption is very rapid and controlled by intra-particle and/or film diffusion, depending on dye concentration. Among the nanocomposites studied, the SiOC aerogel (total capacity about 45 mg/g, is easily regenerated under mild treatment (250 °C, 2 h). Adsorption of dyes is not affected by the matrix composition: removals of 150 mg/L methylene blue from river water and simulated textile wastewater with high content of metal ions (2-50 mg/L) and chemical oxygen demand (800 mg/L) were higher than 92% and quantitative for a dye concentration of 1 mg/L.

Functionalized iron oxide/SBA-15 sorbent: investigation of adsorption performance towards glyphosate herbicide.

Glyphosate is a worldwide-used herbicide occurring in many monitoring campaigns. Efficient technologies are currently unavailable for glyphosate removal from waters. In this work, a SBA-15 mesoporous silica-based material (Fe-NH2-SBA-15) was synthesized and studied for the adsorption of glyphosate from waters. In order to promote specific interactions between the sorbent and glyphosate via phosphoric group, iron oxide nanoparticles were encapsulated and a surface functionalization with (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane was accomplished. The adsorption of glyphosate on Fe-NH2-SBA-15 was investigated as a function of (i) pH, (ii) ionic strength (I), and (iii) adsorbate to adsorbent ratio (C), using a two-level, three-factor experimental design. The experimental design allowed for understanding the effect of the abovementioned variables and for proposing experimental conditions for quantitative removal (pH = 2.1, I = 1⋅10-2 M and C = 0.35) under both batch and dynamic conditions. Interaction mechanism between glyphosate and Fe-NH2-SBA-15 sorbent was elucidated by studying the adsorption behavior of sorbents derived from the intermediate stages of synthesis and by desorption tests. Fe-NH2-SBA-15 sorbent can be quantitatively regenerated by 12.5 mM NaOH, and can be reused at least for five adsorption/desorption cycles. Quantitative removal of glyphosate from inlet and effluent wastewaters from a wastewater treatment plant is shown.