A tris(hydroxymethyl)methyl aminomethane-functionalized SBA-15, SBA-16 and MCM-41 for recovery of boron from salt lake brine

ABSTRACT The removal of boron from aqueous solution and the enrichment of boron from salt lake have attracted more attention. In this work, organo-inorganic hybrid mesoporous boron adsorbents were synthesized by tris(hydroxymethyl)methyl aminomethane (TRIS) grafted onto the meso-porous SBA-15, SBA-16 and MCM-41, respectively. And the structures are characterized by infrared, scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray, mapping, X-ray diffraction, point of zero charge, and Marvin laser particle size analyzer. The results showed that TRIS was successfully grafted onto SBA-15, SBA-16, and MCM-41. The adsorption isotherm and adsorption kinetics were best fitted with Langmuir model and pseudo-second-order rate equation, respectively. The adsorption capacity of the three adsorbents was 15.28, 15.70 and 14.17 mg/g, respectively. And the same functional group has little influence on the boron adsorption capacity of different carrier adsorbents of the same type (organosilicon material). These adsorbents have highly selective adsorption of boron, and maintain good lifetime after adsorption–desorption for 5 times, and the dissolution loss rate of SBA-16-TRIS after ten cycles was 0.93%.