Reusable SnS-Based Cotton Fabric Composites for Efficient Decontamination of Water from Lead Ions under Continuous Flow Conditions.

Lead is a toxic heavy metal that pollutes the environment and accumulates in the human body, causing many severe health issues. Metal sulfides have emerged as promising sorbents for rapidly decontaminating Pb-containing wastewater, showing exceptional sorption kinetics, capacities, and selectivity against common competitive ionic species. In this study, we present modified SnS phases, namely, SnS(DMA)(HO) (, DMA = dimethylamine) and SnS·HO (), which demonstrated efficient removal of Pb ions from aqueous solutions. Both materials exhibited fast kinetics (≤4 min), high sorption capacities (838.0 mg g for and 190.0 mg g for ), remarkable selectivity toward Pb over several competing cations and in various pH values, because of strong Pb-S covalent interactions. Aiming for practical wastewater treatment, we immobilized and on cotton fabrics, marking this as the initial application of metal sulfides immobilized onto cotton substrates. The metal sulfide-fabric composites were utilized to remove Pb under continuous flow conditions, showing significant Pb sorption properties. Significantly, the metal sulfide-based composites can be regenerated and reused over several Pb sorption cycles. This feature, demonstrated for the first time in metal sulfide materials, constitutes a breakthrough for this class of sorbents.