Simultaneous removal of total oxidizable carbon, phosphate and various metallic ions from H₂O₂ solution with amino-functionalized zirconia as adsorbents

Abstract

Amino-functionalized zirconia was synthesized by the co-condensation method using zirconium butanol and 3-aminopropyltriethoxy silane for the simultaneous removal of various impurities from aqueous 30% H₂O₂ solution. The results of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and Zeta potential showed that the content of N in amino-functionalized zirconia increased with the added amount of 3-aminopropyltriethoxy silane. Accordingly, the removal efficiency of total oxidizable carbon, phosphate and metallic ions from the H₂O₂ solution increased. The adsorbent with an N content of 1.62% exhibited superior adsorption performance. The removal efficiency of 82.7% for total oxidizable carbon, 34.2% for phosphate, 87.1% for Fe³⁺, 83.2% for Al³⁺, 55.1% for Ca²⁺ and 66.6% for Mg²⁺, with a total adsorption capacity of 119.6 mg·g^–1, could be achieved. The studies conducted using simulated solutions showed that the adsorption process of phosphate on amino-functionalized zirconia is endothermic and spontaneous, and the behaviors could be well described by the pseudo-second-order model and Langmuir model with a maximum adsorption capacity of 186.7 mg·g^–1. The characterizations of the spent adsorbents by Zeta potential, FTIR and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy revealed that the adsorption mechanism of phosphate is predominantly electrostatic attraction by the protonated functional groups and complementary ligand exchange with zirconium hydroxyl groups.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

adsorption / zirconia / total oxidizable carbon / phosphate / metallic ions / hydrogen peroxide

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