Synthesis, characterization and performances of green rusts for water decontamination: A review

In recent years, the application of green rusts (GRs) for water purification has received significant attention, but its full understanding has not been well achieved. Then, the comprehension about the synthesis and characteristics of GRs can highly favor their decontamination performances for the site-specific conditions. This review comprehensively summarized the synthesis, characteristics and performances of GRs including the GR (Cl−), GR (CO32−) and GR (SO42−) for sequestration of various aqueous pollutants (e.g., tetrachloride, Cr(VI), Se(VI), and U(VI), etc.). Generally, the different reactivity of GRs toward contaminants is strongly dependent on the GRs’ characteristics (e.g., interlayer distance, specific surface area, and Fe(II) content) and solution chemistry (e.g., pH, background electrolytes, dissolved oxygen, and contaminant concentration, etc.). In addition, the reaction mechanisms of GRs with the contaminants involve the redox reactions, adsorption, catalytic oxidation, interlayer and octahedral incorporation, which can mutually or singly contribute to the decontamination to varying degrees. Particularly, this review addressed the transformation pathways of GRs under various solution chemistry conditions and clarified that the stability of GRs should be the key challenge for the real application. Finally, how to effectively use the GRs for water decontamination was proposed, which will significantly benefit the rational control of environmental pollution.