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Integrated Roles of MoS2 Nanosheets for Water Treatment and Polymer Flame Retardant

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Abstract

Layered MoS2 nanosheets have been widely investigated for wastewater treatment or polymer flame retardant alone, while few reports concern about their integrated utilization within the two fields. Herein, the authors creatively explored the multiple roles of MoS2 nanosheets for simultaneous water treatment and polymers flame retardant. MoS2 nanosheets were firstly employed as adsorbents for heavy metals removal and organics elimination in wastewater. The adsorption capacities of MoS2 for methylene blue (MB) and methyl orange (MO), Co2+, Ni2+, were found 181.8, 102.1, 61.7 and 51.8 mg/g, separately, due to the chemical and electrostatic interactions. Then the MoS2 nanosheets after water treatment (MoS2−x) were blended into polystyrene (PS) to study their flame-retardant properties and integrated utilization explorations. Results based on thermal stability, smoke suppression and heat resistance revealed that MoS2−x/PS composites displayed slower heat release rate (HRR), smaller smoke production rate (SPR) and lower CO production rate (COP) but higher T−10% than that of pristine PS, demonstrating the excellent flame-retardant efficiency of MoS2−x. Mechanisms for the great promotion in flame-retardant properties were found mainly resulted from nano-barrier and block wall effect of MoS2−x. Meanwhile, the rapid formation of char residue during the combustion also contributed to the improvement. Investigations in the present work implied the MoS2 nanosheets could not only remove heavy metals and organics, but also can simultaneously delay the polymer combustion, demonstrating the excellent integrated and multiple roles of MoS2 nanosheets in water remediation and polymer flame retardant.

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Acknowledgements

Financial supports in the present work are from the Shandong Provincial Education Department, China (Grant No. J18KB083), Qingchuang Talent Incubation Program from Colleges and universities in Shandong Province (Grant No. 2019.133), Ship Control Engineering and Intelligent Systems Engineering Technology Research Center of Shandong Province and Ship Motion Control and Systems Engineering Technology Research center of Weihai, China (Grant No. SSCC-2018-0001 and SSCC-2019-0005), the Shandong Postdoctoral Innovation Project, the Postdoctoral Science Foundation of Weihai Science and Technology Bureau, the Postdoctoral Science Foundation of Homey Group Co. Ltd.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Marine Environment and Ecology, Ministry of Education, Ocean University of China, Songling Road 238, Laoshan Qingdao, 266100, Shandong, China

    Yinta Li

  2. Doctorado Institucional de Ingeniería Y Ciencia de Materiales, Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosi, Av. Sierra Leona 530, 78210, San Luis Potosi, Mexico

    Lang Yang & Wenming Ju

  3. Homey Group Co. Ltd. Hushan Town, Rongcheng, 264300, Shandong, China

    Yinta Li, Lang Yang & Yongjun Sun

  4. Department of Food Engineering, Weihai Ocean Vocational College, Haiwan South Road 1000, Weihai, 264300, Shandong, China

    Yinta Li & Chunyan Tang

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  1. Yinta Li
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  2. Chunyan Tang
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  3. Lang Yang
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Correspondence to Lang Yang or Yongjun Sun.

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Li, Y., Tang, C., Yang, L. et al. Integrated Roles of MoS2 Nanosheets for Water Treatment and Polymer Flame Retardant. Arab J Sci Eng 46, 6753–6763 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-021-05424-x

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