Recovering heavy metals from electroplating wastewater and their conversion into Zn₂Cr-layered double hydroxide (LDH)...

This work incorporated technological values into Zn₂Cr-layered double hydroxide (LDH), synthesized from unused resources, for removal of pyrophosphate (PP) in electroplating wastewater. To adopt a resource recovery for the remediation of the aquatic environment, the Zn₂Cr-LDH was fabricated by co-precipitation from concentrated metals of plating waste that remained as industrial by-products from metal finishing processes. To examine its applicability for water treatment, batch experiments were conducted at optimum M²⁺/M³⁺, pH, reaction time, and temperature. To understand the adsorption mechanisms of the PP by the adsorbent, the Zn₂Cr-LDH was characterized using Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses before and after adsorption treatment. An almost complete PP removal was attained by the Zn₂Cr-LDH at optimized conditions: 50 mg/L of PP, 1 g/L of adsorbent, pH 6, and 6 h of reaction. Ion exchange controlled the PP removal by the adsorbent at acidic conditions. The PP removal well fitted a pseudo-second-order kinetics and/or the Langmuir isotherm model with 79 mg/g of PP adsorption capacity. The spent Zn₂Cr-LDH was regenerated with NaOH with 86% of efficiency for the first cycle. The treated effluents could comply with the discharge limit of <1 mg/L. Overall, the use of the Zn₂Cr-LDH as a low-cost adsorbent for wastewater treatment has contributed to national policy that promotes a zero-waste approach for a circular economy (CE) through a resource recovery paradigm.