Contributions and mechanisms of components in modified biochar to adsorb cadmium in aqueous solution

Recently, researchers have carried out a large number of studies on the adsorption of heavy metals by modified biochar, but there have been fewer explorations of the contributions and mechanisms of components in biochar composites on heavy metals adsorption. In this paper, the biochar was modified by Fe²⁺/Fe³⁺ and NaOH, and a further analysis of the adsorption of cadmium on the new biochar was conducted. It was found that (1) the adsorption capacity for cadmium of the modified biochar (M85) was 406.46 mg/g, which was 16 times that of the original biochar (C800); (2) the increased adsorption of cadmium onto the modified biochar had little correlation with the specific surface area, and the pure iron component was not the decisive factor for the huge adsorption capacity; and (3) the modified biochar was a kind of composite material with special construction, where the C-O-Fe structure that formed on its surface was the main reason for the sharp increase in adsorption. Among the iron components, iron oxides (Fe₃O₄, γ-Fe₂O₃ and Fe-O-Fe), iron-containing functional groups (-Fe-R-COOH and Fe-R-OH, etc.) and the mineral crystal X_iFeY_jO_k reacted with the cadmium ion in aqueous solution to exchange, form complexes and precipitate, achieving the purpose of fixing the heavy metal. In addition, the aromatic structure C=Cπ can also adsorb Cd²⁺ to generate C=Cπ-Cd.