Highly-effective removal of Pb by co-pyrolysis biochar derived from rape straw and orthophosphate

Highlights: • Co-pyrolysis biochars have higher Pb removal capacities than original biochar. • Metaphosphate within co-pyrolysis biochar promoted Pb sorption. • Carbon stability of co-pyrolysis biochars is enhanced compared with original biochar. -- Abstract: When used separately, biochar and orthophosphate are good materials to remove Pb from water, but few studies have been done on Pb removal by biochar-orthophosphate composite. Here biochar-orthophosphate composites were prepared by co-pyrolyzing rape straw with orthophosphate (Ca(H₂PO₄)₂·H₂O / KH₂PO₄) at ratio of 5:1 (W:W), noted as WBC-Ca and WBC-K, respectively, so as to explore the Pb removal capacities and mechanisms of co-pyrolysis biochars. The sorption isotherms of Pb were well fitted with Langmuir model and the maximum sorption capacities of Pb by original biochar, WBC-Ca, and WBC-K were 184.1, 566.3 and 1559 mmol kg⁻¹, respectively. The results of FTIR, XRD, and XPS analyses showed that phosphorus in biochar played an important role to remove Pb by forming lead-precipitates. However, the species of lead-precipitates in three types of Pb-loaded biochars were Pb₅(PO₄)₃Cl, Pb₂P₂O₇, and Pb_n/2(PO₃)_n, individually, and that was because speciation of phosphorus had undergone significant thermochemical transformation during pyrolysis process. Orthophosphate in WBC-Ca was mainly transformed to pyrophosphate, while orthophosphate in WBC-K was transformed to both metaphosphate and pyrophosphate. The present results warrant the promising application of co-pyrolysis biochar derived from rape straw and orthophosphate in removal of Pb from wastewater.