Studies on elimination of nutrients from aqueous effluents using ZnO nanoparticles: the case of ammonium as a model. Experimental and theoretical insights

BELÉN PEREZ ADASSUS, M.; HERMAN HEFFNER; CARLA SPETTER; IGNACIO LÓPEZ CORRAL; LASSALLE, VERONICA L.

Journal of Materials Science

Springer

Año: 2024 vol. 59 p. 3363 - 3380

The presence of ammonium (NH4+) in natural waters has increased in the lastyears due to the rising use of agricultural fertilizers, industrial activity and sewagedischarges without any decontamination treatment. The great amounts ofthis inorganic cation in water bodies have been considered an environmentalproblem, due to its influence on the eutrophication process which leads to thedeterioration of water quality. The application of ZnO nanoparticles to assessnutrient elimination, including ammonium, from water bodies has not beenexhaustively studied. In this work, the capability of ZnO nanoparticles to removeammonium cation from aqueous samples induced by adsorption is investigated.In this regards, experiments tending to determine the efficiency of nanomaterialshave been performed employing two different NH4+ concentrations aiming to replicatetwo feasible real water-impacted environments. The interactions betweenadsorbent and adsorbate have been explored by employing experimental characterizationtechniques as well as theoretical DFT simulations. The achieved datademonstrated that the efficiency of ZnONPs shows a dependency on the ammoniumconcentration, ranging between 0.79 and 11.6 mg of ammonium adsorbedper gram of ZnONPs. According to the data on characterization prior and postadsorption of the ZnO nanomaterials the electrostatic interaction would not befavored, being the coordination ones the most feasible as suggested experimentaland DFT results.