One-Dimensional Fibrous MoS2 Nanosheet Hybrids for Fast and Efficient Pb2+ Separation from Contaminated Water

Transition metal dichalcogenide nanosheet (TMDN)-based adsorbents possess promising Pb2+ removal capabilities due to their distinctive Lewis acid/base soft-soft interactions with Pb2+, nevertheless, which still suffer from drawbacks including vulnerability in complex aqueous solutions. In this work, aramid nanofibers (ANFs) with excellent structural stabilities were applied as the support materials for in situ growth of MoS2 nanosheets, and the obtained delicately fibrous ANF/MoS2 can be molded into aerogels and membranes through a vacuum filtration process. On account of the Pb2+ complexation capacity of both sulfur atoms in MoS2 nanosheets and nitrogen/oxygen atoms in the ANF and superior structural stabilities in chemical solvents and high-temperature conditions, such hybrid aerogels exhibited efficient and fast Pb2+ adsorption capacities (similar to 187.9 mg/g at 25 degrees C, similar to 327.4 mg/g at 85 degrees C within 150 s, pH = 5). Additionally, the obtained aerogel membranes achieved a synthetic effect of separation and adsorption that can remove more than 90% of Pb2+ from 100 mg/L Pb2+ aqueous solutions, and similar to 75% rejection ratio was retained after 10 cycles at 25 degrees C. Therefore, our work provided a method to build aerogel adsorbents based on TMDNs that possessed remarkable performance to rapidly, efficiently, and stably adsorb Pb2+ even under harsh environments.