The coexistence of organic and inorganic pollutants in
industrial
wastewater has emerged as a concerning environmental issue worldwide
due to the critical levels of biological toxicity of these pollutants.
In this context, the present study proposes a sandwich structure of
fulvic acid and PMIDA-modified LDHs (FA/PMIDA-LDHs) for the simultaneous
removal of Cu2+ and aniline from wastewater. The specific
structure was synthesized using a combination of coprecipitation and
impregnation methods. Abundant benzene rings and oxygen-containing
functional groups greatly increased the number of sites for the adsorption
of both Cu2+ and aniline. The maximum adsorption capacity
of Cu2+ and aniline in solution with initial pH 5.0 at
25 °C could reach 221.24 and 132.28 mg/g, respectively. Cu2+ could be chelated by the functional groups in the FA/PMIDA-LDHs
structure, and a coupled reduction–complexation mechanism was
proposed for this process. The uptake of aniline on FA/PMIDA-LDHs
was demonstrated to be a result of the combination of coordination
forces, hydrophobic effects, π–π interactions,
and hydrogen bonds. In a multicomponent solution, FA/PMIDA-LDHs exhibited
excellent salt tolerance of up to 1000 mg/L of Na+ or Ca2+. The effects of Fe3+, Ni2+, Cl–, Cr2O7
2–,
SO4
2–, and H2PO4
– on the uptakes of Cu2+ and aniline
were also investigated.