Abstract
The widespread pollution of water bodies with arsenic (As) necessitates the development of efficient decontamination techniques. To address this issue, we herein prepare Fe-Mn-Ce ternary oxide-biochar composites (FMCBCs) using impregnation/sintering methods and examined their physicochemical properties, morphologies, and As(III) removal performances. The specific surface area of FMCBCs increased with increasing Ce content and enhanced the quantity of surface functional groups (–OH, –COOH). The adsorption of As(III) on FMCBCs was well represented by pseudo-second-order kinetics, and the As(III) adsorption capacity of the best-performing FMCBCs (8.47 mg g−1 for FMCBC3) exceeded that of BC by a factor of 2.9. At pH = 3, the amount of adsorption of As(III) by FMCBCs reached a maximum, and the increased ionic strength could enhance adsorption capacity of FMCBCs. Moreover, an As(III) removal efficiency of ~99% was observed for FMCBC3 at a dosage of 8 g L−1, which highlighted its great potential as an absorbent for As(III) removal from contaminated water.
Highlights
The rapid progress of industrialization in the past decades has resulted in severe pollution of the environment by heavy metals [1,2]
In view of the fact that specific surface areas are generally positively correlated with adsorption performance, we initially focused on evaluating the specific surface areas of Fe-Mn-Ce ternary oxide-biochar composites (FMCBCs) (Table 1)
We successfully prepared and characterized a range of FMCBCs, and demonstrated the great arsenic removal performance on As(III) from aqueous solutions, showing that the incorporation of Fe-Mn-Ce oxide increased the number of adsorption sites on the BC surface
Summary
The rapid progress of industrialization in the past decades has resulted in severe pollution of the environment by heavy metals [1,2]. The efficiency of BC-promoted As removal from aqueous solutions still needs to be improved, e.g., by hybridization of BC with Fe-Mn oxides [15,16], which feature the advantages of large surface area, high surface charge, strong adsorption capacity, and the ability to oxidize the difficult-to-remove As(III) to As(V) [17]. The practical applicability of Fe-Mn oxide particles is limited by their tendency to aggregate, poor pore structure, and insufficient mechanical strength To solve these problems and increase the As(III) removal efficiency, the above mixed oxide can be combined with other materials to afford composites. This study was built on the results of our previous research and focused on evaluating the efficiency of As removal by Fe-Mn-Ce ternary oxide–BC composites (FMCBCs), aiming to (i) prepare a range of FMCBCs and evaluate their physicochemical properties, (ii) investigate the As(III) adsorption performance of FMCBCs in aqueous solutions, and (iii) elucidate the corresponding mechanism
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