Nano-alumina wrapped carbon microspheres for ultrahigh elimination of pentavalent arsenic and fluoride from potable water

Abstract

Materials with ultrahigh adsorption competences are extensively required for effective wastewater remediation. Unfortunately, leaching and agglomeration of nanomaterial-based adsorbents is a common problem to be resolved. Carbon-based hybrid nanocomposite showing enormous capability in the field of wastewater treatment. Arsenic and fluoride in water have unpropitious effects on people’s health, and remediation of these ions through adsorption is one of the foremost challenges and high priority to the research. The present study deals with fabricating a novel composite using alumina wrapped carbon microspheres (Al-CMs) with high adsorption capacities and investigating the mechanism for removing pentavalent arsenic/arsenate (As(V)) and fluoride (F−) at the molecular level. The maximum adsorption capacities for As(V) and F− calculated from the Langmuir model are 68 and 371.1 mg/g, respectively, comparatively higher than other reported nano-adsorbents. Under optimized conditions, Al-CMs are able to remove more than 98% of F− and As(V) under wide range of pH (2–12). Further, the interaction energy of Al-CMs with F− and As(V) was examined using density functional theory (DFT). The reported work exhibits a feasible adsorbent for removing F− and As(V) from the wastewater.