In situ synthesis of a porous ZrO2 coated fiber membrane for efficient static and dynamic removal of Se(iv)

Abstract

Environmental water containing excessive selenium (Se) seriously threatens human health. Hence, it is essential to remove excessive Se from environmental water. In this work, a porous ZrO₂ coated fiber membrane (ZrO₂/FM) was prepared in situ for Se(IV) removal from environmental water. The removal experiments show that ZrO₂/FM possesses excellent removal performance towards Se(IV). In the static removal experiments, over 90% Se(IV) can be removed within 60 min by using ZrO₂/FM and the Se(IV) maximum adsorption capacity by using ZrO₂/FM is calculated to be as high as 17.69 mg g⁻¹. The rapid and efficient removal performance profits from the abundant active sites and large specific surface area of ZrO₂. Additionally, a simple filter device was designed and developed for dynamic Se(IV) removal. Up to 93% Se(IV) can be removed by using the constructed filter device and the Se(IV) removal efficiency remains more than 65% after five cycles, indicating the excellent dynamic removal performance and reusability of ZrO₂/FM. These results indicate that our proposed ZrO₂/FM has a very appealing application prospect in the field of static and dynamic removal of Se(IV) from environmental water.