Enhancing the Removal of Sb (III) from Water: A Fe3O4@HCO Composite Adsorbent Caged in Sodium Alginate Microbeads

Jun Zhang,Renjian Deng,Bozhi Ren,Mohammed Yaseen,Andrew Hursthouse

doi:10.3390/pr8010044

Abstract

To remove antimony (Sb) ions from water, a novel composite adsorbent was fabricated from ferriferous oxide and waste sludge from a chemical polishing process (Fe3O4@HCO) and encapsulated in sodium alginate (SAB). The SAB adsorbent performed well with 80%–96% removal of Sb (III) ions within a concentration range of 5–60 mg/L. The adsorption mechanism of Sb (III) was revealed to be the synergy of chemisorption (ion exchange) and physisorption (diffusion reaction). The adsorption isotherms and kinetics conformed to the Langmuir isotherm and the pesudo-second-order kinetic model. Both initial pH and temperature influenced the adsorption performance with no collapse of microbeads within solution pH range 3–7. Most importantly for practical applications, these microspheres can be separated and recovered from aqueous solution by a magnetic separation technology to facilitate large-scale treatment of antimony-containing wastewater.

Highlights

Antimony (Sb) is a well-known, naturally occurring and highly toxic and carcinogenic metalloid element [1]
The spheroidization of Fe O4 @hydrous ceric oxide (HCO) and sodium alginate (SA) microspheres with different concentrations is shown in Table 1 and Figure A1
The XRD results showed that the residual products after adsorption contained FeSb2O4, FeSb2O6 and CeSbO3

Summary

Introduction

Antimony (Sb) is a well-known, naturally occurring and highly toxic and carcinogenic metalloid element [1]. It occurs predominantly in two forms of oxidation states (+III and +V) in natural water bodies [2]. Long-term excessive intake of Sb can seriously affect human health, causing liver and lung injury and weakening of the human immune system [3]; antimony is listed as a dangerous substance in many countries or by international organizations. Long term high-intensity mining and smelting activities have produced a serious legacy of antimony pollution for China [4]. Other sources of antimony pollution occur more frequently, at lower levels around industrial manufacturing of metallic and plastic components

Methods

Results

Conclusion