Sorption enhancement of nickel(II) from wastewater by ZIF-8 modified with poly (sodium 4-styrenesulfonate): Mechanism and kinetic study

[Display omitted] •ZIF-8@PSS exhibits ultrafast sorption rate and high sorption capacity for nickel.•The role of PSS on sorption enhancement of ZIF-8 for Ni(II) is explored.•High dispersion and negative charge of ZIF-8 are the keys to sorption enhancement.•The feasibility of ZIF-8@PSS is validated by authentic nickel plating effluent.•Dimethylglyoxime regenerant significantly improves the reusability of ZIF-8@PSS. Effective removal of toxic metal Ni(II) from wastewater is essential to water safety and human health. Although zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) has demonstrated outstanding selective removal of Ni(II) in high-salinity wastewater, the practical applications of ZIF-8 are mainly limited by low active sites utilization, slow adsorption kinetics and poor reusability. In this study, we prepared a novel negatively charged poly (sodium 4-styrenesulfonate) (PSS)-modified ZIF-8 adsorbent, ZIF-8@PSS (12 h), which increased the adsorption rate of Ni(II) (kinetic constant k = 0.0299 g mg−1 min−1) by nearly 10 times and the adsorption capacity (329.58 mg/g) by 1.6 times compared to pristine ZIF-8 (k = 0.0021 g mg−1 min−1). ZIF-8@PSS (12 h) (0.5 g/L) could quickly decrease Ni(II) (C0 = 1.0 mg/L) to 0.1 mg/L (discharged standard) in 25 min, while 600 min for ZIF-8. Batch experiments and characterization analyses revealed PSS can improve particle dispersion, increase active sites utilization, and strengthen Ni(II) diffusion kinetics, thereby enhancing the adsorption of Ni(II). Among them, the increase in active sites utilization of ZIF-8 contributes 83.3% to capacity improvement, while the –SO3− on PSS is 16.7%. Furthermore, the enhancements of adsorption kinetics and capacity were also applicable to other heavy metals (e.g., Cu2+, Pb2+, Cr3+, Cd2+). Column experiments using real nickel plating effluent shown that 1 g ZIF-8@PSS (12 h) could produce ~3675 mL of clean water before breakthrough (Ni2+