Advanced SiO2 Composite Materials for Heavy Metal Removal from Wastewater

Thermal processing of materials is used in a very broad sense to cover all sets of technologies and processes for a wide range of industrial sectors and it refers to material development with a specific application potential due to its advantages over conventional synthesis methods. By applying hydrothermal technique, the development of advanced materials has been pursued, in order to retain heavy metals from wastewater. This research refers to nanosilica-based materials, specifically mesoporous silica, for which the heavy metal retention properties were improved by using nano-TiO2 and nano-CeO2, considering the properties of titanium and cerium. Advanced methods have been used to characterize the materials obtained as X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) for chemical composition; X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) for microstructural properties and BET analyser for pores and specific surface area characterization. The results showed higher retention efficiencies for the doped nanosilica.