Evaluation of selectivity and sensitivity of gallium nitride nanosensor for grabbing metal/metalloid ions (Na+, K+, Sn2+, Pb2+, Al3+) from water: materials modelling approach towards environmental treatment

Abstract

The goal of this research is selecting metal/metalloid ions of (Na+, K+, Sn2+, Pb2+, Al3+)from water due to nanomaterial-based gallium nitride nanocage (Ga-N). Ga-N was modeled in the presence of metal/metalloid cations (Na+, K+, Sn2+, Pb2+, Al3+). Moreover, the results of chemical shielding calculations exhibited remarkable fluctuations in the metal elements Na+, K+, Sn2+, Pb2+, Al3+ due to the capture of Ga-N in the periodic framework of H2O molecules. This research work confirms the selectivity of metal ion capture by Ga-N nanodetector as: K+> Na+>>> Sn2+ approximate to Pb2+ > Al3+. Finally, it has been shown that for a given number of N-donor sites in the Ga-N nanosensor, the stabilities of monovalent (M+), divalent (M2+) and trivalent (M3+) cation complexes are K+<-> Ga-N > Na+<-> Ga-N >>> Sn2+<-> Ga-N approximate to Pb2+<-> Ga-N > Al3+<-> Ga-N.