Phosphate Elimination and Recovery Lightweight (PEARL) membrane: A sustainable environmental remediation approach

Abstract

Aqueous phosphate pollution can dramatically impact ecosystems, introducing a variety of environmental, economic, and public health problems. While novel remediation tactics based on nanoparticle binding have shown considerable promise in nutrient recovery from water, they are challenging to deploy at scale. To bridge the gap between the laboratory-scale nature of these nanostructure solutions and the practical benchmarks for deploying an environmental remediation tool, we have developed a nanocomposite material. Here, an economical, readily available, porous substrate is dip coated using scalable, water-based processes with a slurry of nanostructures. These nanomaterials have tailored affinity for specific adsorption of pollutants. Our Phosphate Elimination and Recovery Lightweight (PEARL) membrane can selectively sequester up to 99% of phosphate ions from polluted waters at environmentally relevant concentrations. Moreover, mild tuning of pH promotes at will adsorption and desorption of nutrients. This timed release allows for phosphate recovery and reuse of the PEARL membrane repeatedly for numerous cycles. We combine correlative microscopy and spectroscopy techniques to characterize the complex microstructure of the PEARL membrane and to unravel the mechanism of phosphate sorption. More broadly, through the example of phosphate pollution, this work describes a platform membrane approach based on nanostructures with specific affinity coated on a porous structure. Such a strategy can be tuned to address other environmental remediation challenges through the incorporation of other nanomaterials.

Antimicrobial two-dimensional covalent organic nanosheets (2D-CONs) for the fast and highly efficient capture and recovery of phosphate ions from water

“…The reduction of dissolved O 2 impacts the survival of fish and other aquatic animals. 3 Hence, a polymer with inherent biocide activity would provide an extra benefit over other such materials. The presence of guanidinium moieties also inspired us to investigate the antibacterial activities of the gCONs.…”

“…In addition, the increased methane gas emission due to eutrophication is comparable to 18–33% of the yearly CO 2 released from burning fossil fuels. 2,3…”

Anchoring NH2-MIL-101(Fe/Ce) within Melamine Sponge Boosts Rapid Adsorption and Recovery of Phosphate from Water

“…Brockgreitens et al developed a “Crescoating” approach, by which iron nanoparticles have been directly grown on polyurethane sponges that displays a remarkably enhanced adsorption affinity and much more rapid adsorption kinetic for capturing P compared to commercial alternatives. Using a dip-coating method, Ribet and colleagues synthesized a Fe 3 O 4 -laden Cellulose sponge (referred to as “PEARL”), which can selectively capture up to 99% of P from wastewater at environmentally relevant concentrations. A recent study shows that the melamine sponge (MS) composite anchored with ZIF-8 exhibited excellent oil/water separation performance due to the synergistic effect from the advantages of both ZIF-8 and MS scaffolds .…”

Nano-SCHeMe: Nanomaterial Sponge Coatings for Heavy Metals, an Environmental Remediation Platform

“…This composite material leverages the hierarchical porosity, robustness, and deployability advantages of cellulose membranes with the large surface area and high selectivity of metal oxide nanoparticles. These nanoparticles (magnetite, manganese-doped goethite, alumina, and zinc oxide) were selected due to high level of academic interest in their use for water remediation and for their low cost and green synthesis routes. − The resulting sponge nanocomposites have been found to be effective materials for attacking contemporary environmental problems such as oil spill remediation and nutrient recovery . After our previous success with respect to these problems, we looked at the adsorption and recovery of heavy metals in water as a logical next step.…”