Sodium lignosulfonate modified polystyrene for the removal of phenol from wastewater

Abstract

An eco‐friendly and novel water treatment material was synthesized using sodium lignosulfonate modified polystyrene (SLPS), which can be used to eliminate phenols in aqueous solution. SLPS was characterized by BET, FTIR, SEM, and EDS. The effect of the initial pH value, phenol content, adsorption time, and temperature on the absorbability of phenol in SLPS was investigated through adsorption experiments. It was found that SLPS could efficiently adsorb phenol in aqueous solution at a pH value of about 7. The test results revealed that the kinetic adsorption and isotherm adsorption could be successfully described using the pseudo second‐order and Langmuir models, respectively. It was illustrated that the phenol adsorption on SLPS was dominated by chemisorption and belonged to monolayer adsorption. The max. phenol adsorption value of SLPS was 31.08 mg/g at 30 °C. Therefore, SLPS displayed a great potential for eliminating phenol from polluted water as a kind of novel and effective adsorbent.