Ammonium-coordinated exchanger (ACE) functionalized silica sorbents for recovering/removing aqueous anionic contaminants

Wilfong, Walter Chris; Wang, Qiuming; Shi, Fan; Cheng, Chin-Min; Garber, William; Johnson, Karen; Tinker, Phillip; Bhandari, Gita; Howard, Bret; Gray, McMahan L.

doi:10.1016/j.jece.2025.119727

Title: Ammonium-coordinated exchanger (ACE) functionalized silica sorbents for recovering/removing aqueous anionic contaminants

Journal Article · Thu Oct 09 00:00:00 UTC 2025 · Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering (Online)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jece.2025.119727 · OSTI ID:3362472

^[1]; Wang, Qiuming ^[1];

^[1];

^[1]; Garber, William ^[1]; Johnson, Karen ^[1]; Tinker, Phillip ^[1]; Bhandari, Gita ^[1];

^[1]; Gray, McMahan L. ^[1]

National Energy Technology Lab. (NETL), Pittsburgh, PA (United States)

There are limited studies of functionalized silica anion exchange sorbents used for critical/heavy metal recovery/removal relative to polymeric and other inorganic materials. This work features ammonium-coordinated exchanger (ACE) anion exchange particle sorbents prepared by either acid-washing epoxy-crosslinked polyethylenimine (PEI) hydrogen bonded within/to a silica particle sorbent (two-step method) or reacting a di-chlorinated crosslinker, α,α-dichloro-p-xylene (DPX), with PEI within silica (single-step method). Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and infrared spectroscopy confirmed the presence of -NH₂⁺ ···Cl^- and -NH₃⁺···Cl^- groups, which removed oxyanionic species –arsenate, selenate, chromate, sulfate, phosphate, and nitrate– plus bromide from ideal solutions, authentic acid mine drainage (AMD), and authentic flue gas desulfurization (FGD) wastewater. Affinity of the anions for ACE varied across single- and mixed-element solutions. However, affinity for CrO₄^2- was among the highest in both cases. Total anion uptake by the optimized ACE, PEI-E3-HCl_1.1, reached 1.2 mmol anion/g-sorb. (0.56 mmol CrO₄^2-/g), or ∼2.3 mmol negative charge/g-sorb. This was close to the 0.52 mmol CrO₄^2-/g of a commercial anion exchange resin. Near-consistent removal of 20–80 % of each anion from FGD during an eight-cycle adsorption-desorption (1 M NaCl) test predicted good ACE viability for testing under practical conditions at larger scale.

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Research Organization:: National Energy Technology Lab. (NETL), Pittsburgh, PA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM)

OSTI ID:: 3362472

Journal Information:: Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering (Online), Journal Name: Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering (Online) Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 13; ISSN 2213-3437

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Title: Ammonium-coordinated exchanger (ACE) functionalized silica sorbents for recovering/removing aqueous anionic contaminants

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