Insight into the Enhanced Removal of U(VI) with Fe-Ni Bimetallic Particles Loaded on Biochar

Yingshan Zhu; Muhammad Shaban; Njud S Alharbi; Xuemei Ren; Changlun Chen

doi:10.1021/acs.langmuir.4c04766

Insight into the Enhanced Removal of U(VI) with Fe-Ni Bimetallic Particles Loaded on Biochar

Langmuir. 2025 Jan 24. doi: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.4c04766. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Yingshan Zhu^{1

2}, Muhammad Shaban^{1

2}, Njud S Alharbi³, Xuemei Ren¹, Changlun Chen^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Plasma Physics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 1126, Hefei 230031, PR China.
² University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230000, PR China.
³ Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabian.
⁴ Collaborative Innovation Center of Radiation Medicine of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, PR China.

PMID: 39849953
DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.4c04766

Abstract

This work develops Fe-Ni particles loaded on biochar (Fe-Ni/BC) to remove U(VI) efficiently. Fe-Ni bimetallic particles loaded on biochar (BC) can improve stability and reactivity, and the mesoporous structure of BC can effectively reduce Fe⁰ aggregation. The removal ability of Fe-Ni/BC is higher than that of Fe-Ni, BC, and Fe/BC. With the aid of kinetics and isotherms, the removal data were fitted by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model (R² ≥ 0.999) and Langmuir model (R² ≥ 0.94). Meanwhile, Fe-Ni/BC exhibited the largest removal capacity of 250.78 mg/g for U(VI) at pH 5.0 and a temperature of 303 K. Removing uranium using Fe-Ni/BC was carried out in the following steps: First, U(VI) in the solution was sorbed onto the Fe-Ni/BC surface through chemical bonds. Second, Fe(II) and Fe⁰ contributed to the U(VI) reduction process. At the same time, Fe-Ni formed a primary cell and underwent electron transfer. Moreover, Ni⁰ adsorbed H₂ generated by Fe⁰ corrosion, forming Ni-H to prevent agglomeration and reduce U(VI). The results indicate that Fe-Ni bimetallic particles loaded on biochar enhance the removal of U(VI) by sorption-reduction synergistic effect. This work offers valuable insights into the design of bimetallic nanomaterials for environmental remediation of U(VI) contamination.