Exceptional cerium(III) adsorption performance of poly(acrylic acid) brushes-decorated attapulgite with abundant and highly accessible binding sites

•A novel poly(acrylic acid) brush/attapulgite (PAA@ATP) nanocomposite was prepared.•The preparation method was simple, rapid, and efficient.•There were abundant and highly accessible carboxyl groups present in PAA brush.•The PAA@ATP exhibited an exceptional performance for Ce3+ adsorption.

Numerous adsorbents have been used for recovery of rare earth ions, but very few of them simultaneously possess the advantages of high adsorption capacity and fast adsorption kinetics. In the present work, a novel rod-like nanocomposite, poly(acrylic acid) brushes-decorated attapulgite (PAA@ATP), was synthesized by a simple, fast, and previously unreported surface-initiated polymerization, and its cerium ion (Ce3+) adsorption performance was systematically investigated. Due to the presence of abundant and highly accessible carboxyl groups in the PAA brushes, PAA@ATP nanocomposite demonstrated exceptional adsorption properties in terms of adsorption capacity and adsorption kinetics on recovery of Ce3+ ions. Under optimized conditions, the Ce3+ adsorption capacity of PAA@ATP reached 295.4 mg g−1, which was significantly higher than the Ce3+ adsorption capacities for most reported adsorbents. Moreover, at an initial Ce3+ concentration of 50 mg L−1, the time to reach equilibrium for Ce3+ adsorption was as short as 1 min. Even at very high initial Ce3+ concentration (i.e., 200 mg L−1), the adsorption reached saturation within 20 min. Overall, this work not only provides a new insight into the fabrication of PAA brushes-decorated attapulgite nanocomposite but also demonstrates its adsorptive application for recovery of rare earth ions.

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