One-pot synthesis of iron oxides decorated bamboo hydrochar for lead and copper flash removal

A novel one-pot codeposition strategy was developed by employing bamboo hydrochar as precursors to fabricate magnetic porous char (MPC) with Fe3O4 or α-Fe loading. The synthesized MPC with well dispersed magnetic phase and high thermal stability displayed excellent adsorption capacities and flash adsorption rate for Cu(II) and Pb(II). The batch sorption experiments showed that MPC had the best performance with Langmuir adsorption capacities as high as 125.06 mg/g for Cu(Ⅱ) and 153.85 mg/g for Pb(Ⅱ), respectively. More importantly, the short time of adsorption reaching 90 % equilibrium within 10 min was considerably beyond previous study. Also, a synergistic mechanism of the chemical complexation and physical adsorption for the higher adsorption capabilities and flash removal rate of the synthesized MPC was proposed. The regeneration investigation revealed that the sorption efficiencies remained at high level with above 92.4 % for Cu(II) and 94.1 % for Pb(II) after five cycles. Thus, the MPC were expected to be a promising candidate for high-efficient and rapid removal of heavy metal contaminants from wastewater in future practical utilization.