Chromium-
and arsenic-based oxoanions are among the major highly
toxic and carcinogenic inorganic pollutants present in groundwater,
demanding fast and selective sequestration. Efficient capturing and
removal of these highly mobile oxometallates at neutral pH presents
a great challenge in groundwater cleanup. Herein, a series of guanidinium-based
ionic organic covalent nanosheets (iCONs) with varying hydrogen bonding,
steric, and electronic properties was studied to examine the structure–activity
relationship in the adsorption and removal of chromium- and arsenic-based
oxoanions in water. Structural modulations in iCONs were found to
alter the guanidinium acidity, thus regulating the oxoanion uptake
limits via ion exchange. The hydrogen bonding, steric, and electrostatic
interactions at/near the guanidinium-based anion binding site in iCONs
exerted heavy influences on the uptake efficiency and selectivity
of arsenate but not on those of chromate. Further analyses revealed
that the parallel bidentate hydrogen bonding interactions play a key
role in the weak binding of arsenate to the protonated/positively
charged guanidine motifs, whereas the strong ion–ion interactions
between chromate and guanidinium appear to be more tolerant to the
geometric and structural perturbation.