Work

Synthesis of FeOOH/Al2O3 Composites with Excellent Adsorption Performance and Regenerability for Phosphate Removal from Wastewater

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: To address the issues of insufficient capacity and difficult regeneration of adsorbents for phosphate removal from wastewater, in this study, FeOOH/Al2O3 adsorbents were successfully developed by in situ growing amorphous iron oxyhydroxide (FeOOH) within the pores of alumina (Al2O3) using a simple method. The physicochemical properties of FeOOH/Al2O3 adsorbents were characterized using X-ray Diffraction (XRD), N2 adsorption/desorption analysis, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Additionally, their phosphate adsorption properties were comparatively investigated. The results revealed that FO-A-3, one of the FeOOH/Al2O3 samples prepared with Fe/Al molar ratio of 0.47, exhibited excellent adsorption capacity and a relatively fast adsorption rate, surpassing those of Al2O3 and amorphous FeOOH alone. The adsorption process of phosphate using FO-A-3 conformed to the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and the Langmuir isotherm model, with a maximum adsorption capacity of 131.00 mg/g. To tackle the problem of poor regeneration performance, this study innovatively proposed a repeatable and simple regeneration strategy. Experiments demonstrated that FO-A-3 maintained a relatively high adsorption capacity after four cycles of regeneration.

Source: Molecules

DOI: 10.3390/molecules30214200