Network interior and surface engineering of alginate-based beads using sorption affinity component for enhanced phosphate capture

In order to alleviate the environmental problems caused by excessive discharge of phosphate, an environmental friendly and highly efficient bio-sorbent (SA-La@PEI) for phosphate was fabricated by combing strategies of sorption affinity component mediated and poly(ethylenimine) surface engineering of alginate beads. Various characterization methods like SEM, FTIR, XRD and XPS were adopted to examine the morphology and functional group composition of SA-La@PEI. Through detailed tests, SA-La@PEI exhibited excellent adsorption performance of 121.2 mg/g, which was better than most published materials. More importantly, the outstanding phosphate selectivity of SA-La@PEI was exposed when NO 3 − , HCO 3 − , SO 4 2− and Cl − were added to the phosphate solution. Considering the integrated components in composites, both chemical precipitation and electrostatic attraction can be considered as the dominant mechanisms of phosphate adsorption. Totally, as-prepared SA-La@PEI beads might be a promising sorbent for the decontamination of excessive phosphate because of its low-cost, excellent adsorption performance and mechanical strength.