Xiuping Feng,Ruixin Yan,Qinggang Zhang,Qun Wan,Takeshi Hagio,Ryoichi Ichino,Long Kong,Xinde Cao,Liang Li
It is urgent and essential to remove antimony from wastewater due to its potential carcinogenicity . In this paper, a nano ferric oxide (NFO) adsorbent was synthesized in a one-step low temperature calcination (150 °C) process. It presents a surprising self-acidification behavior, could automatically adjust the pH to around 4 from different intimal pH values (4–9), which enable it to efficiently remove more than 99% of Sb(V) from wastewater in a wide pH range. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis proved that the self-acidification function was originated from the hydrolyzation of surface Fe atoms on ferric oxide nanoparticles . The maximum adsorption capacity of this adsorbent is 78.1 mg/g which is 2–3 times higher than that of the samples obtained at higher temperatures (250 °C and 350 °C), and also its adsorption kinetic constant is ten times higher, which can be attributed to the larger surface areas and smaller sizes of ferric oxides synthesized at 150 °C. In the actual wastewater treatment , the effluent’s concentration after treatment can be maintained below the instrument detection limit even under low initial antimony concentration. We believe that this new adsorbent has great potential in the practical application in the treatment of Sb polluted wastewaters due to its simple synthesis, high efficiency, and low cost.
Linfeng Peng,Hui Li,Wangjun Lin,Tangfu Xiao,Jianqiao Wang,Jinfeng Tang,Nana Wang
Antimony (Sb) pollution in water has attracted extensive attention due to the biotoxicity of Sb. Secondary iron minerals readily sorb heavy metal(loid)s and critically affect their cycling in terrestrial environments. However, compared with synthetic pure iron mineral phases, little is known about the Sb sorption behavior and mechanism on natural secondary iron minerals (nSIMs) composed of various mineral phases. In this study, sorption experiments were conducted to investigate the Sb(V) sorption properties of nSIMs from an acid mine drainage zone and corresponding single-component synthetic secondary mineral phases and to compare their sorption behaviors and mechanisms. Spectroscopic analyses indicated that the nSIMs structurally resembled a hybrid of schwertmannite , jarosite and goethite . Sb(V) sorption on nSIMs, schwertmannite, goethite and jarosite was controlled by chemisorption , with maximum Sb(V) sorption capacities of 217.39, 233.65, 32.17 and 35.61 mg/g, respectively. nSIMs demonstrated an excellent Sb(V) sorption capacity equivalent to or greater than that of the single-component phases. XRD, FTIR and Raman analyses indicated that Sb(V) was immobilized on nSIMs mainly through ion exchange with structural SO 4 2− and complexation interactions with surface Fe O and Fe OH; then, an Fe O Sb surface phase formed during the dissolution and further transformation of schwertmannite and jarosite into goethite. SEM revealed that nSIMs had an advantage in surface microstructure over the single components. These results suggested that despite the similarities in Sb(V) binding mechanism between nSIMs and schwertmannite, nSIMs might be more reactive for Sb(V) sorption since the nSIM components could mutually influence each other and facilitate Sb(V) sorption. This research suggests that nSIMs have potential for Sb(V) removal and helps elucidate the environmental behavior of Sb(V) associated with nSIMs.