Low-cost and large-scale synthesis of functional porous materials for phosphate removal with high performance

Abstract

A facile spray drying technique has been developed for large-scale and template-free production of nanoporous silica with controlled morphology, large pore size, and high pore volume, using commercially available fumed silica, Aerosil 200, as a sole precursor. This approach can be applied to the preparation of functional nanoporous materials, in this study, lanthanum oxide functionalised silica microspheres by introducing lanthanum nitrate in situ during the spray drying process and followed by a post-calcination process. The resultant lanthanum functionalised Aerosil microspheres manifest high phosphate adsorption capacity (up to 2.317 mmol g⁻¹), fast kinetics, and excellent adsorption performance at a low phosphate concentration (1 mg L⁻¹). In virtue of the easy and scalable synthesis method, low cost and high performances of the product, the materials we reported here are promising for water treatment. Our approach may be general and extended to the synthesis of other functional nanoporous materials with versatile applications.