Abstract:

It is an important challenge to effectively remove environmental pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), dyes and heavy metal ions at a low cost. Herein, we present a multifunctional homopolymer vesicle self-assembled from a scalable homopolymer, poly(amic acid) (PAA) at room temperature. The vesicle can efficiently eliminate PAHs, cationic dyes and heavy metal ions from water based on π-π stacking, hydrophobic effect and electrostatic interactions with the pollutants. The residual concentrations of PAHs, cationic dyes and heavy metal ions (such as Ni²⁺)in water are lower than 0.6, 0.30 parts per billion (ppb) and 0.095 parts per million (ppm), respectively, representing a promising adsorbent for water remediation. Furthermore, precious metal ions such as Ag⁺ can be recovered into silver nanoparticles by in situ reduction on the membrane of PAA vesicles to form silver nanoparticle/vesicle composite (Ag@vesicle) that can effectively catalyze the reduction of toxic pollutants such as aromatic nitro-compounds and be recycled for more than ten times.

文章链接：ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 2017, DOI: 10.1021/acsami.7b15242.