Preparation of a novel lactose-lignin hydrogel catalyst with self-reduction capacity for nitrogenous wastewater treatment

Abstract

A novel carboxylated lactose/sodium lignosulfonate/polyacrylic acid hydrogel composites with self-reduction capacity was successfully synthesized by self-assembly method. The hydrogel with well-developed porous structure provided abundant anchoring points and reduction capacity for transforming Ag⁺ into silver nanoparticles. Silver nanoparticles dispersed among the network of hydrogel and the composites exhibited catalytic capacity. The catalytic performance was evaluated via degradation of p-nitrophenol, rhodamine B, methyl orange and methylene blue, which were catalyzed with corresponding reaction rate constants of 0.04338, 0.07499, 0.04891, and 0.00628 s^–1, respectively. In addition, the catalyst exhibited stable performance under fixed-bed condition and the corresponding conversion rate still maintained more than 80% after 540 min. Moreover, the catalytic performance still maintained effective in tap water and simulated seawater. The catalytic efficiency still remained 99.7% with no significant decrease after 8 cycles.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

carboxylated lactose / Ag NPs / self-reduction / nitrogenous wastewater

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Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 21776026 and 22075034), Liaoning Revitalization Talents Program (Grant No. XLYC1902037), and the Foundation of Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Science & Technology of Ministry of Education, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences) (Grant No. KF202114), and Dalian high level talent innovation support program (Dalian Youth Science and Technology Star Project Support Program) (Grant No. 2023RQ043).

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-024-2451-z and is accessible for authorized users.

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