Mitigation of arsenic and fluoride from water via porous polymeric network knitted with zirconium moiety in three-dimensional shape: Experimental and mathematical modeling investigation

Abstract

The presence of toxic contaminants in water seriously threatens human health. Thus, in order to address the water pollution through toxic contaminants, a new type of cross-linked porous polymeric microsphere namely; poly(Zirconyl dimethacrylate) (pZrDMA), was successfully prepared by a single-step facile approach. The pZrDMA comprises an acrylate chain of zirconium moiety, which is a proficient adsorbent for arsenic and fluoride remediation. A series of pZrDMA were prepared by varying the relative amounts of reactants to get an appropriate composition. The pZrDMA having, a high surface area (SA: 392.12 m2 g−1) and porosity (Pore size: 0.93–2.36 µm), has exhibited maximum adsorption capacities (qe) of 4.26 mg g−1, 4.22 mg g−1 and 198.5 mg g−1 As(V), As(III) and F− respectively. The pZrDMA displayed high removal efficiency (>97 %) for all the ions over a wide pH range (2.0 ± 0.2 to 10 ± 0.2). The adsorption kinetic and isotherms are well described by the pseudo-second-order model (PSO), and Langmuir isotherm model for both toxic ions arsenic and fluoride. The multicomponent adsorption isotherm with arsenic and fluoride has also studied. The experimental data analysis using the ANN model provides a high accuracy of the model with larger correlation coefficient values (R > 0.99). The pore diffusion modeling predicted the breakthrough time of 174 h, 1542 h, and 1466 h for F−, As(V), and As (III), respectively.