Evaluation of Aluminum-Coated Pumice as a Potential Arsenic(V) Adsorbent from Water Resources

Document Type : Original Research Paper

Authors

1 Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Environment and Energy, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University,Tehran, Iran

2 Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Faculty of Health and Center for Health Research, Tehran University of Medical Sciences,Tehran, Iran

3 Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Faculty of Health and Research Center for Health Sciences, Hamedan University of Medical Sciences, Hamedan, Iran

4 Department of Environment, Faculty of Fishery and Environment, College of Agriculture & Natural Resources, Tehran University, Karaj, Iran

Abstract

In this study, the removal of As (V) from water resources by using aluminum-coated pumice as
a new adsorbent was assessed. The features of the adsorbent coating layer were observed by X-ray diffraction
(XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM).The effects of various parameters such as adsorbent doses,
pH, contact time, arsenate initial concentration and interfering ions in arsenic adsorption and achieving high
removal efficiency were studied. The results showed that the adsorption of As (V) was extremely influenced
by the phosphate interfering ions .It was also defined that more than 98% of As (V) was removed by 10 g/L
of the adsorbent with initial As (V) concentration of 250 μg/L at pH=7 and in 160 minutes. The adsorption
equilibriums were analyzed by Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. Such equilibriums showed that the
adsorption data was well fitted with Freundlich isotherm model (R2>0.99). The data achieved from the kinetic
studies were processed by kinetic models of pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order .The results indicated
that the pseudo-second-order model could describe the adsorption of As (V) by pumice coated with alum
(R2>0.92). According to achieved results, it was defined that aluminum-coated pumice not only was an
inexpensive absorbent, but also a quite effective factor in removal of As (V) from water resources.

Keywords

International Journal of Environmental Research
Volume 5, Issue 2
April 2011
Pages 447-456

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics