Phosphate removal from aqueous solution by Fe-La binary (hydr)oxides: A study of batch experiments and mechanisms

Abstract

In this study, Fe-La binary (hydr)oxides were prepared by a co-precipitation method for phosphate removal. Various techniques, including secondary electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX), powder X-ray diffraction (p-XRD) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area analysis, were employed to characterize the synthesized Fe-La binary (hydr)oxides. Batch experiments indicated that the performance of phosphate removal by Fe-La binary (hydr)oxides was excellent and increased with increasing La contents. The kinetics study showed that the adsorption was rapid and described better by the pseudo-second-order equation. The maximum adsorption capacities of Fe/La 3:1, Fe/La 1:1 and Fe/La 1:3 binary (hydr)oxides at pH 4.0 calculated by Langmuir model were 49.02, 69.44 and 136.99 mg/g, respectively. The uptake of phosphate was highly affected by solution pH and significantly reduced with the increase of pH value. The analyses of p-XRD, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) suggested that the predominant mechanisms of phosphate removal involved surface hydroxyl exchange reactions and co-precipitation of released La3+ and phosphate ions, which resulted into the formation of amorphous phase of rhabdophane (LaPO4∙0.5H2O). The results show great potential for the application on the treatment of phosphate decontamination for their high efficiency of phosphate removal.