Thallium (Tl) is a rare but highly toxic element. Mineral exploitation and utilization lead to a risk of thallium (Tl) leakage to the aqueous environment, greatly threatening human health. In this study, we propose a novel Tl wastewater treatment process based on a regenerable adsorptive membrane to achieve Tl removal and recovery from industrial wastewaters. Specifically, a composite membrane was fabricated using Prussian blue (PB) and a commercial polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane. The as-fabricated PB/PVDF composite membrane exhibited an outstanding Tl removal efficiency (> 95%) at various operating conditions (i.e., a permeate flux ≤ 140 L m⁻² h⁻¹, pH from 3 to 11, and an initial Tl concentration from 50 to 1000 µg/L). Moreover, coexisting heavy metal ions (e.g., Pb²⁺, Cu²⁺, Cd²⁺, Ni²⁺, and Zn²⁺) had little interference with the Tl removal efficiency of the PB/PVDF composite membrane. Hydraulic backwash was applied to recover PB-Tl composite particles as a high content source of Tl (92.2 ± 11.4 mg of Tl per gram of composite), while the backwashed PVDF membrane can be reused for the fabrication of the PB/PVDF composite membrane. A simplified economic analysis suggests that chemical cost for synthesizing the consumable Pb in the proposed dynamic composite membrane process was only ∼ 6.1% of the value of recovered Tl, highlighting the vast potential of the proposed process for Tl removal and recovery from industrial wastewaters.

铊 (Tl) 是一种稀有但剧毒的元素。矿产开采和利用导致铊 (Tl) 泄漏到水环境中的风险，极大地威胁人类健康。在这项研究中，我们提出了一种基于可再生吸附膜的新型铊废水处理工艺，以实现工业废水中铊的去除和回收。具体来说，使用普鲁士蓝 (PB) 和商用聚偏二氟乙烯 (PVDF) 膜制造复合膜。所制备的 PB/PVDF 复合膜在各种操作条件下（即渗透通量 ≤ 140 L  m^-2 h^-1，pH 从 3 到 11，初始 Tl 浓度从 50 到 1000 µg/L）。此外，共存的重金属离子（如 Pb ²⁺、Cu ²⁺、Cd ²⁺、Ni ²⁺和 Zn ²⁺) 对 PB/PVDF 复合膜的 Tl 去除效率干扰很小。水力反洗用于回收 PB-Tl 复合颗粒作为 Tl 的高含量来源（每克复合材料 92.2 ± 11.4 mg Tl），而反洗的 PVDF 膜可重复用于制造 PB/PVDF 复合膜。简化的经济分析表明，在所提出的动态复合膜工艺中合成消耗性 Pb 的化学成本仅为回收 Tl 价值的 6.1%，突出了所提出工艺从工业废水中去除和回收 Tl 的巨大潜力。