Synthesis and Regeneration of A MXene-Based Pollutant Adsorbent by Mechanochemical Methods

In the present study, an adsorbent material for removal of organic contaminants in wastewater is synthetized by a green and facile mechanochemical method. It is composed of Ti3C2Tx MXene layers (obtained by mechanochemical etching of MAX phase with concentrated HF) pillared with terephthalate by rapid direct reaction. Such material shows high specific surface area (135.7 m(2) g(-1)) and excellent adsorption capability of methylene blue (209 mg g(-1)) because of the larger interlayer space among MXene sheets and free carboxylate groups of terephthalate. The spent adsorbent is reutilized (with addition of sole aluminum) to synthetize the MAX phase by mechanochemical procedure, where the terephthalate and the pollutant are carbonized into the carbide. In this way, new MXene-based adsorbent can be re-synthetized for further use.