Removal of hypertoxic Cr(VI) from water by polyaniline-coated ZIF-67-derived nitrogen-doped magnetic carbon

Heavy metals are highly toxic and nonbiodegradable, posing a serious threat to the water environment and human beings. Therefore, it is crucial to develop a highly efficient adsorbent that is easy to recover and separate for the removal of heavy metals. In this paper, nitrogen-doped magnetic carbon (NC-67) was prepared by carbonization and hydrochloric acid treatment using cobalt-containing MOF (ZIF-67) as precursor. Then, polyaniline (PANI) was grown directly on NC-67 with high specific surface area by in situ polymerization to prepare polyaniline-coated nitrogen-doped magnetic carbon (NC-67@PANI), which was characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM and VSM, etc. and used for the removal of Cr(VI)from wastewater. The experimental results showed that the adsorption process of Cr(VI) by NC-67@PANI was spontaneous and endothermic, which conformed to the pseudo-second-order model and Freundlich adsorption isotherm model. Due to the synergistic effect of adsorption and reduction, the experimental adsorption capacity of NC-67@PANI for Cr(VI) was 410.2 mg/g. NC-67@PANI maintained a removal efficiency of 65.8% for Cr(VI) after five cycles. In addition, NC-67@PANI had good magnetism and was easy to separate under external magnetic field. The excellent adsorption capacity and easy separation characteristics of NC-67@PANI indicate that it is a promising adsorbent for Cr(VI) removal from wastewater.