The adsorption capacity of synthetic NaX zeolite for Pb2+, Cd2+, Cu2+ and Zn2+ in single and multi-component systems were investigated. The effects of electronegativity and hydration energy on the selective adsorption, as well as potential selective adsorption mechanism of the NaX zeolite for Pb2+, Cd2+, Cu2+ and Zn2+ were also discussed. The maximum adsorption capacity order of the heavy metals in the single system was Pb2+ > Cd2+ > Cu2+ > Zn2+, and this could be related to their hydration energy and electronegativity. The values of the separation factors (α) and affinity constant (KEL) in different binary systems indicated that Pb2+ was preferentially adsorbed, and Zn2+ presented the lowest affinity for NaX zeolite. The selective adsorption capacities of the metals were in the order, Pb2+ > Cd2+ ≈ Cu2+ > Zn2+. The trend for the selective adsorption of NaX zeolite in ternary and quaternary systems was consistent with that in the binary systems. Pb2+ and Cu2+ reduced the stability of the Si-O-Al bonds and the double six-membered rings in the NaX framework, due to the high electronegativity of Pb2+ and Cu2+ than that of Al3+. The selective adsorption mechanism of NaX zeolite for the high electronegative metal ions could mainly result from the negatively charged O in the Si-O-Al structure of the NaX zeolite, hence heavy metal ions with high electronegativity display a strong affinity for the electron cloud of the oxygen atoms in the Si-O-Al. This study could evaluate the application and efficiency of zeolite in separating and recovering certain metal ions from industrial wastewater.

Background Although laccase has a good catalytic oxidation ability, free laccase shows a poor stability. Enzyme immobilization is a common method to improve enzyme stability and endow the enzyme with reusability. Adsorption is the simplest and common method. Modified biochar has attracted great attention due to its excellent performance. Results In this paper, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)-KOH modified biochar (CKMB) was used to immobilize laccase by adsorption method (laccase@CKMB). Based on the results of the single-factor experiments, the optimal loading conditions of laccase@CKMB were studied with the assistance of Design-Expert 12 and response surface methods. The predicted optimal experimental conditions were laccase dosage 1.78 mg/mL, pH 3.1 and 312 K. Under these conditions, the activity recovery of laccase@CKMB was the highest, reaching 61.78%. Then, the CKMB and laccase@CKMB were characterized by TGA, FT-IR, XRD, BET and SEM, and the results showed that laccase could be well immobilized on CKMB, the maximum enzyme loading could reach 57.5 mg/g. Compared to free laccase, the storage and pH stability of laccase@CKMB was improved greatly. The laccase@CKMB retained about 40% of relative activity (4 °C, 30 days) and more than 50% of relative activity at pH 2.0–6.0. In addition, the laccase@CKMB indicated the reusability up to 6 reaction cycles while retaining 45.1% of relative activity. Moreover, the thermal deactivation kinetic studies of laccase@CKMB showed a lower k value (0.00275 min− 1) and higher t1/2 values (252.0 min) than the k value (0.00573 min− 1) and t1/2 values (121.0 min) of free laccase. Conclusions We explored scientific and reasonable immobilization conditions of laccase@CKMB, and the laccase@CKMB possessed relatively better stabilities, which gave the immobilization of laccase on this cheap and easily available carrier material the possibility of industrial applications.

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A new environment-friendly hydrophilic terpolymer of PAA-AEO-SAS was synthesized by free radical polymerization using acrylic acid (AA), aliphatic alcohol polyoxyethylene ether (AEO) and sodium allyl sulfonate (SAS). The structure and molecular weight were characterized by FTIR, 1 H-NMR and

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