Abstract
Arsenic contamination in drinking water has become an increasingly important issue due to its high toxicity to humans. The present study focuses on the development of the yttrium-based adsorbents, with basic yttrium carbonate (BYC), Ti-loaded basic yttrium carbonate (Ti-loaded BYC) and yttrium hydroxide prepared using a co-precipitation method. The Langmuir isotherm results confirmed the maximum adsorption capacity of Ti-loaded BYC (348.5 mg/g) was 25% higher than either BYC (289.6 mg/g) or yttrium hydroxide (206.5 mg/g) due to its increased specific surface area (82 m2/g) and surface charge (PZC: 8.4). Pseudo first- and second-order kinetic models further confirmed that the arsenate removal rate of Ti-loaded BYC was faster than for BYC and yttrium hydroxide. It was subsequently posited that the dominant removal mechanism of BYC and Ti-loaded BYC was the carbonate-arsenate ion exchange process, whereas yttrium hydroxide was regarded to be a co-precipitation process. The Ti-loaded BYC also displayed the highest adsorption affinity for a wide pH range (3–11) and in the presence of coexisting anionic species such as phosphate, silicate, and bicarbonate. Therefore, it is expected that Ti-loaded BYC can be used as an effective and practical adsorbent for arsenate remediation in drinking water.
Highlights
Arsenic is a well-known strong carcinogen and toxic element [1]
We focused on the synthesis of rare earth metal (Y; yttrium) based arsenic adsorbents by the simple surface modification method
We introduced basic yttrium carbonate (BYC), titanium (Ti) loaded BYC and yttrium hydroxide with high adsorption capacity for arsenate
Summary
Arsenic is a well-known strong carcinogen and toxic element [1]. The contamination of arsenic in drinking water has increasingly become an emerging environmental issue due to its strong toxicity and global distribution [2,3]. World Health Organization (WHO) and United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) have recommended a maximum arsenic concentration of 10 ppb (μg/L) of arsenic as a drinking water standard [8,9], and have discussed that this standard should be reduced to 5 ppb[10]. Since this strict drinking water criteria has been applied, high-efficiency and cost-effective technologies have been needed to treat and remove arsenic from drinking water [11]
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