Submicron fibers as a morphological improvement of amorphous zirconium oxide particles and their utilization in antimonate (Sb(v)) removal

Abstract

Zirconium oxide was formed into submicron fibers to improve the Sb(v) separation performance compared to a conventional aggregate material.

Sb-doped zirconium dioxide submicron fibers for separation of pertechnetate (TcO4–) from aqueous solutions

“…The water solution was then mixed with 84 mL of 14 wt% PVP/ ethanol solution and then with the SbCl 3 ethanol solution under magnetic stirring until the solution became homogeneous. The precursor solution for the undoped ZrO 2 followed the recipe of Lönnrot et al [26] In a typical spinning process, 10 mL of solution was withdrawn into a syringe and a 0.21 mm ø needle was attached to the syringe tip. The syringe was placed on a syringe pump that was feeding the solution at a rate of 15 mL h -1 .…”

“…The calcination process of the fibers was carefully optimized to produce fibers with small tetragonal crystallites that have shown good anion uptake performance in the literature. [26,27] The resulted fibers were analyzed with XRD to confirm that the desired crystallinity was obtained and how the Sb-dopant is behaving in the structure. The XRD diffractograms of all fibers showed dominating tetragonal zirconia (t-ZrO 2 ) structure, Fig.…”

“…The process has been applied, for example, in a synthesis of ZrO 2 fibers. [26,27] ZrO 2 is an inorganic material with excellent properties for an adsorbent as it is nontoxic, chemically and physically inert and practically insoluble to water. Various crystal structures, [28,29,30] morphologies,- [31,32,33,34] and amphoteric nature of ZrO 2 [35] make the material an excellent choice for adsorbent design.…”

“…Moreover, ZrO 2 submicron fibers have been used for Sb(V) separation. [26,27] Lönnrot et al- [26] presented that ZrO 2 submicron fibers built up less pressure in a packed bed column than small particles but the fibers still offered large surface area that is necessary for an efficient sorbent.…”

Novel electroblowing synthesis of submicron zirconium dioxide fibers: effect of fiber structure on antimony(v) adsorption

“…16 Powderous, granular and brous zirconium dioxide have exhibited high Sb(V) adsorption capacities. [17][18][19] ZrO 2 has a good performance even in a chemically harsh environment by tolerating acidic and alkaline as well as oxidising and reducing conditions and it is also a nontoxic substance. 18,19 Nano-and submicron bers have some unique characteristics such as a good tensile strength and large specic surface area due to a small diameter and porous structure.…”