Synthesis of functionalized mesoporous silica and its application for Cu(II) removal

摘要

The amine-grafted and mercapto-grafted SBA-15 mesoporous silica were synthesized successfully via hydrothermal method. These functionalized mesoporous silica were prepared by direct co-condensation and post-synthesis grafting processes and then used as adsorbents to remove the Cu2+ from the simulated water. The obtained mesoporous adsorbent was characterized by X-ray diffraction, nitrogen adsorption-desorption analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. The experimental results showed that mesoporous materials can be grafted functional groups successfully without significant change of the hexagonal mesostructure after the functionalization process, but the adsorption capacity of copper ions was greatly enhanced and the adsorption amount was up to 99.68%. Compared with post-synthesis grafting processes, because the direct co-condensation templating agent was not completely removed which affects the adsorption capacity. It was demonstrated that the functionalized mesoporous silica could be used as a promising adsorbent for removing and recovering heavy metal ions in water.