Modified hydrous zirconium oxide/PAN nanofibers for efficient defluoridation from groundwater

Fluoride contamination in groundwater is a worldwide problem that is related to human health. Zirconium-based adsorbents possess satisfactory selective defluoridation capacities. However, narrow efficiency pH range, easy aggregation and difficult separation are the main obstructions in practical application. In this study, the branched polyethyleneimine (bPEI) modified hydrous zirconium oxide (HZO)/polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers (NFs) are synthesized by immobilizing bPEI-HZO into PAN nanofibers via electrospinning. The resultant bPEI-HZO/PAN NFs exhibit a wide working pH range and an excellent adsorption capacity toward fluoride (67.51 mg·g −1 ) even at neutral condition, indicating non-negligible superiority in the practical application of groundwater defluoridation. This enhanced adsorption performance along with extended wider working pH range are ascribed to the optimization of the adsorbents from both composition and structure. Compositionally, the modification of bPEI improves the surface property of HZO, and thus increases fluoride capacity in alkaline groundwater. Structurally, electrospinning conquers the drawbacks of nano-adsorbents for both easy aggregation and difficult separation. In addition, the effect of co-existing ions was further investigated and the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) as well as fourier transform infrared spectrum (FTIR) measurements were used to clarify the fluoride adsorption mechanism. Furthermore, the dynamic adsorption and regeneration performance were accomplished through the fixed-bed column experiment. All the results indicated that bPEI-HZO/PAN NFs are promising materials for defluoridation from groundwater.