Resourcing of building waste brick slags as a column packing material: Toward excellent phosphate removal performance for water treatment

Abstract

Efficient phosphorus removal from wastewater is of paramount importance, however, the design of low-cost, high-performance materials for phosphorus removal is faced with a huge challenge. Herein, a waste brick slag loaded with iron oxide and lanthanum hydroxide (WB@Fe2O3-La(OH)3) has been prepared by sequential deposition of Fe2O3 and La(OH)3 nanoparticles on the surface of brick slag particles and applied to removal of phosphate from wastewater via column separation, and the maximum phosphate separation efficiency can reach 99 %. More importantly, it shows a high phosphate removal efficiency (≥90 %) over the wide range of pH 3.0–8.0, in addition to a high separation selectivity toward phosphate and high throughput during separation process. The low cost and high removal efficiency benefit from the use of building waste bricks and column separation which due to its full contact with the target. The ligand exchange and the chemical precipitation are mainly responsible for the phosphate removal by WB@Fe2O3-La(OH)3. Therefore, the prepared WB@Fe2O3-La(OH)3 particles with the high phosphate separation efficiency and column separation for phosphate removal developed has the potential to become an excellent candidate for practical application in phosphate separation and provides a reference path for building waste brick recycling.