This study investigated the performance
of fluoride adsorption
onto a specific tetrametallic oxide adsorbent Fe–Al–Ce-Ni
(FACN) and the effect of temperature on adsorption performance. The
adsorption performance was determined by adsorption equilibrium, kinetics,
and thermodynamic parameters. The adsorption, kinetic, and thermodynamic
parameters were compared alternatively. The fluoride adsorption capacity
was obtained from four different adsorption isotherm models, namely,
Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin, and Dubinin–Radushkevich (D–R),
and Freundlich was found to best fit model. Fluoride removal rate
using adsorption (0.27 min–1) was obtained faster
than reactive adsorption (0.04 min–1). Several thermodynamic
parameters such as enthalpy, Gibbs free energy, entropy (ΔS > 0), and adsorption activation energy were calculated
which demonstrated the feasibility and spontaneity (ΔG < 0) and exothermic nature of (ΔH < 0) the fluoride adsorption process. The adsorption process
was controlled by a physical mechanism, and the maximum adsorption
capacity was found to be 250 mg/g. To our knowledge, this is the first
report on the synthesis of tetrametallic oxide adsorbent for fluoride
adsorption, and the feasibility of the adsorption process was ratified
by three van’t Hoff plots.