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In order to solve the pollution of heavy metals and organic antibiotic in the water environment, a novel CuBi 2 O 4 /calcined ZnAlBi layered double hydroxides (CBO/CLDHs) composite was constructed and prepared via an ultrasonic-assisted calcination method for the adsorption and photocatalysis synergetic effect. Through varying the composition ratio, pH value, initial pollutant concentration and other pollutant interference, the simultaneous removal ability including adsorption and photocatalysis of as-prepared CBO/CLDHs composites for Cr(VI) and tetracycline pollutants was discussed. In particular, the CBO/CLDHs-1/15 composite showed that the removal efficiencies of Cr(VI) (40 mg/L) and tetracycline (40 mg/L) were both above 95%. Meanwhile, the XPS results confirmed that the toxic Cr(VI) was gradually reduced to non-toxic Cr(III) under visible light irradiation. The enhanced adsorption and photocatalytic activity was mainly attributed to the uniform distribution of calcined ZnAlBi layered double hydroxides nanosheets on the CuBi 2 O 4 microrods and the formation of heterojunctions. Moreover, cycle performance results revealed that the CBO/CLDHs-1/15 composite maintained high removal activity and stable structure after 4 photocatalytic cycles, and even showed a good adaptability while applied to the actual water in production and living environments. These results exhibited that the as-prepared CBO/CLDHs-1/15 composite has excellent adsorption and photocatalytic ability for the simultaneous removal of Cr(VI) and tetracycline, with a great potential application in practical waste water treatment field. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A convenient and effective method was developed to fabricate zirconium-based calcium sulfate whiskers (Zr-CSWs), an environmentally friendly adsorption material designed to clean excessive fluoride from wastewater. Zr-CSWs, which potentially provide high adsorption activity toward fluoride in wastewater, overcome an aggregation problem typical of Zr-based species that may block the pore structure of the supporting material and degenerate its treatment performance. The results indicate that Zr-CSWs show excellent equilibrium adsorption capacity compared to other Zr-based materials in practical water solutions with pH values of 6–7. The adsorption of fluoride on Zr-CSWs was further evaluated in accordance with the Langmuir equation and the pseudosecond-order model. Coexisting anions had a minor effect on the removal of fluoride, and a strong alkali solution regenerated the used adsorbent. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations were performed to determine the mechanism of fluoride removal. The calculations demonstrated that the removal of fluoride by Zr-CSWs was mainly achieved by ion exchange between fluoride ions and OH- on the surface of the adsorbent, where a protonation process created low-coordination Zr atoms. [Display omitted] • Zirconium decorated calcium sulfate whisker (Zr-CSW) was prepared in a simple and low-cost way. • Zr-CSW has high capacity and good selectivity for the removal of fluoride in water. • The adsorption follows Langmuir model and pseudosecond-order dynamic equation. • The mechanism for fluoride removal has been revealed by density of functional theory (DFT). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]