SnO2–TiO2 nanocomposites as new adsorbent for efficient removal of La(III) ions from aqueous solutions

Abstract

SnO2–TiO2 nanocomposites (NCs) were prepared by facile wet-chemical method at low-temperature. NCs were characterized in detail by using powder X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, FESEM, XEDS, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), FTIR and UV/visible spectroscopy etc. The analytical potential of the SnO2–TiO2 NCs phase was studied for a selective extraction of lanthanum prior to its determination by inductively coupled plasma–optical emission spectrometry (ICP–OES). The selectivity of SnO2–TiO2 NCs was investigated toward various metal ions, including Cd(II), Cu(II), Hg(II), La(III), Mn(II), Pb(II), Pd(II), and Y(III). Data obtained from the selectivity study exhibited that the selectivity of SnO2–TiO2 NCs phase was the most toward La(III). The uptake capacity for La(III) was experimentally calculated to be ∼65.60mg/g. Moreover, adsorption isotherm data of La(III) on SnO2–TiO2 NCs phase, were well fit with the Langmuir adsorption isotherm, strongly supporting that the adsorption process was mainly monolayer on homogeneous adsorbent surfaces. Kinetic study revealed that the adsorption of La(III) on SnO2–TiO2 NCs followed the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Finally, determination of La(III) in real water samples was successfully applied by the proposed method.