One-Dimensional Fibrous MoS₂ Nanosheet Hybrids for Fast and Efficient Pb²⁺ Separation from Contaminated Water

Transition metal dichalcogenide nanosheet (TMDN)-based adsorbents possess promising Pb 2+ removal capabilities due to their distinctive Lewis acid/base soft–soft interactions with Pb 2+, nevertheless, which still suffer from drawbacks including vulnerability in complex aqueous solutions. In this work, aramid nanofibers (ANFs) with excellent structural stabilities were applied as the support materials for in situ growth of MoS 2 nanosheets, and the obtained delicately fibrous ANF/MoS 2 can be molded into aerogels and membranes through a vacuum filtration process. On account of the Pb 2+ complexation capacity of both sulfur atoms in MoS 2 nanosheets and nitrogen/oxygen atoms in the ANF and superior structural stabilities in chemical solvents and high-temperature conditions, such hybrid aerogels exhibited efficient and fast Pb 2+ adsorption capacities (∼187.9 mg/g at 25 °C, ∼327.4 mg/g at 85 °C within 150 s, pH = 5). Additionally, the obtained aerogel membranes achieved a synthetic effect of separation and adsorption that can remove more than 90% of Pb 2+ from 100 mg/L Pb 2+ aqueous solutions, and ∼75% rejection ratio was retained after 10 cycles at 25 °C. Therefore, our work provided a method to build aerogel adsorbents based on TMDNs that possessed remarkable performance to rapidly, efficiently, and stably adsorb Pb 2+ even under harsh environments.