Biomimetic mineralization of montmorillonite-based nanomaterials for efficient capture of copper ions

Biomimetic mineralization is one of the effective methods for synthesizing functional materials with specific shape structures, and the raw materials required for the process are cheap and readily available. Here we designed a novel method, in which graphene oxide assisted biomimetic mineralization to prepare a biomimetic-coral structural material with the characteristics of sensing and capturing metal ions . The coral-like structure featured tight, fine and uniform channels for efficient provided plentiful adsorption sites while exposing various functional groups such as -OH, -COOH. The maximum theoretical adsorption capacity of the material was calculated by the Langmuir model. About 88.3% of Cu(II) was adsorbed rapidly within a contact time of 30 min, and the maximum adsorption capacity was 198.8 mg g −1 at pH = 6 and T  = 298 K. The adsorption mechanism was proved that chelation was the dominant governing mechanism for copper ions adsorption on the material.