Abstract
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances are widely used in various consumer products. However, these compounds can cause various harm to the environment and health. Considering the high chemical stability, these compounds are not completely removed from the aqueous environment, and consequently, recent studies have detected their presence in water bodies. In this scenario, biomass-based adsorbents are promising. β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) was grafted in an ultrafine potato peel waste (UFPPW) to produce a novel, efficient, and sustainable adsorbent (UFPPW-β-CD) that was used to remove three different perfluorosulfonic acids (PFSAs) from water. The efficient grafting was proved by several characterization techniques, which also demonstrated the main UFPPW-β-CD features. The UFPPW-β-CD was efficient for all PFSAs (perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS), perfluoropentanesulfonic acid (PFPeS), and perfluorobutanesulfonic acid (PFBS)), with removal percentage higher than 74 %. The increase in the C[sbnd]F chain of PFSAs favored the adsorption due to the host–guest hydrophobic interactions between the C[sbnd]F chains of the adsorbates and the hydrophobic cavity of the β-CD. Removal percentages and adsorption capacities at pH 3.0 were 74.6 % (49.92 µg g −1) to the PFBS, 82.6 % (65.66 µg g −1) to the PFPeS, and 90 % (100.89 µg g −1) to the PFHxS. The kinetic followed the General order model, while the equilibrium agreed with the Sips isotherm. The adsorption capacity increased with the increase in the C[sbnd]F chain of the adsorbate, but the adsorption rate followed the opposite trend. PFSAs adsorption on the UFPPW-β-CD adsorbent was favorable and exothermic. UFPPW-β-CD could be used seven times, keeping its maximum adsorption capacity constant using ultrasound-assisted desorption. It can be concluded that UFPPW-β-CD is a sustainable adsorbent to uptake PFSAs from water, and this process is dependent on the size of the C[sbnd]F chains.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 127972 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Separation and Purification Technology |
| Volume | 350 |
| Issue number | 12 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 18 Dec 2024 |
| MoE publication type | A1 Journal article-refereed |
Funding
This study was funded by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (Tunisia) under the Grants-in-Aid of CBS contract program (code grant: LR15CBS06). This work was funded by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development/CNPq (Grant 303992/2021-2). Dr. dos Reis thanks Bio4Energy, a strategic research environment appointed by the Swedish government, and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences for supporting this work. The authors would like to thank the Researchers Supporting Project number (RSPD2024R668), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.