Abstract
Water polluted with excess phosphates and metals poses significant risks to human health and the environment. These elements, however, also hold value as nonrenewable resources essential for agriculture and renewable energy. Nanostructured sorbents, with their high surface area/volume ratio, offer a solution by enhancing sorption capacity and selectivity. Given this, we developed a sponge nanocomposite (SNC) consisting of a cellulose sponge coated with iron oxide nanoparticles. The SNC features a robust hierarchical porosity and structure more suitable for scaled deployment, while also minimizing byproducts and providing reusability. Tested in a flow-through column setup, it demonstrated the effective removal of phosphate, copper, and zinc. Selective recovery was then achieved by using a pH-assisted selective extraction approach, where phosphorus was recovered at a mildly basic pH, while metals were recovered at a mildly acidic pH. This process regenerates the adsorption sites on the SNC for subsequent reuse. The methodology exhibited in this report shows the potential for sustainable advancements in the circular economy, resource reclamation, and water treatment.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1055-1063 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | ACS ES and T Water |
| Volume | 5 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 5 2025 |
Funding
This work was primarily funded by the Trienens Institute for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern University and by StormTrap. This material is based upon work on The Great Lakes Water Innovation Engine supported by the National Science Foundation under the NSF Regional Innovation Engines program (NSF Award Number ITE-2315268). This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation SBIR Phase II under Award Number 2415632 . Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. This material is partially based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant no. DMR-1929356. This work made use of the EPIC facility of Northwestern University\u2019s NUANCE Center, which has received support from the SHyNE Resource (NSF ECCS-2025633), the IIN, and Northwestern\u2019s MRSEC program (NSF DMR-2308691). Metal analysis was performed at the Northwestern University Quantitative Bioelement Imaging Center (QBIC) generously supported by NASA Ames Research Center NNA06CB93G. This work made use of the Reactor Engineering and Catalyst Testing (REACT) core facility of the Center for Catalysis and Surface Science at Northwestern University. This work made use of the MatCI Facility supported by the MRSEC program of the National Science Foundation (DMR-1720139) at the Materials Research Center of Northwestern University. The authors are grateful for the assistance from Northwestern University\u2019s shared facilities, namely Tirzah Abbott and the NUANCE staff, Rebecca Sponenburg and the QBIC staff, Neil Schweitzer and the REACT staff, and Carla Shute and the MatCI staff. K.M. would like to acknowledge support from the IIN Ryan Fellowship and the HMCP Fellowship. The authors thank Elias Kallon, Naat\u2019anii Castillo, Caroline Harms, Jack Hegarty, and Mike L. Barsoum for their guidance and support of this work. A provisional patent related to this research has been filed.
Keywords
- adsorbents
- metal remediation
- nanomaterials
- nutrient recovery
- phosphate
- sponge
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Chemistry (miscellaneous)
- Chemical Engineering (miscellaneous)
- Environmental Chemistry
- Water Science and Technology
