Influence of structural Al species on Cd(II) capture by iron muscovite nanoparticles

The isomorphous substitution in the structure of phyllosilicate minerals plays an important role in regulating of surface chemical properties. In this work, iron muscovite nanoparticles with various Al species were successfully prepared to explore the structural Fe and Al species on the capture of Cd(II) from solutions. The synthesized nanocrystals have irregular shapes with diameters of 10–50 nm. The incorporation of Al(III) into the iron muscovite nanostructure has slight effect on the species of Fe and the crystal phase of the products. The degree of Al(III) substituting Si(IV) in the tetrahedral sheets of the minerals obviously increased with increasing of Al doping levels. For the samples with low Al doping levels (5% and 10%), the adsorption capacity of the iron muscovite nanoparticles for Cd(II) increased slightly. With increasing of Al doping ratio to 15%, the obtained iron muscovite nanoparticles exhibited a maximal uptake of 41.4 mg g−1 for Cd(II), which is about two times that of the undoped samples (22.8 mg g−1). The solution pH had a slight effect on the Cd (II) capture at a wide pH range from 4 to 8. The adsorption of Cd(II) is very fast and reached a steady state within 5 min. Desorption results showed that the binding strength between Cd(II) and iron muscovite nanoparticles was obviously enhanced by incorporation of Al at a high level. The ion exchange and surface complexation are principal mechanisms in the Cd(II) capture by the iron muscovite nanomaterials with various structural Al species. [Display omitted] •Fe-MUS nanoparticles with various structural Al species were synthesized.•Al(III) substitution Si(IV) obviously increased with increasing Al doping levels.•Fe-MUS with high Al(III) doping level obviously enhanced Cd(II) capture.•The doping of Al(III) reduced the desorption of adsorbed Cd(II) on Fe-MUS.