Preparation and characterization of β-FeOOH-coated sand and its adsorption of Cr(VI) from aqueous solutions

Abstract

Batch adsorption experiments were conducted to explore the adsorption of Cr(VI) in aqueous solutions by β-FeOOH-coated sand. We investigated the key factors which affected the adsorption process such as adsorbent dosage, initial pH, initial Cr(VI) ion concentration, contact time and temperature. The uptake of Cr(VI) was very rapid and 44.3%, 51.6%, 58.9% of the adsorption happened during the first 180 minutes at 293K, 303K and 313K, respectively. The pseudo-second-order rate equation successfully described the adsorption kinetics. To study the adsorption isotherm, two equilibrium models, the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms, were adopted. At 293K, 303K and 313K, the adsorption capacities obtained from the Langmuir isotherm were 0.060, 0.070 and 0.076 mg Cr(VI) per gram of the adsorbent, respectively. Thermodynamic parameters such as the change of energy, enthalpy and entropy were calculated using the equilibrium constants. The negative value of \mathrm{\Delta }{G}^{\mathrm{0}} and the positive value of \mathrm{\Delta }{H}^{\mathrm{0}} showed that the adsorption of Cr(VI) in aqueous solutions by β-FeOOH-coated sand was spontaneous, endothermic and occurred by physisorption.

Keywords

β-FeOOH-coated sand / Cr(VI) / adsorption / isotherm / kinetics

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Acknowledgements

This research was support by the Independent Innovation Foundation of Shandong University (IIFSDU No. 2009TS023), the Shandong Postdoctoral Sustentation Fund (201003075) and the Jinan Science and Technology Bureau (No. 201102042). The authors would like to thank Dr. Pamela Holt for assistance in revising the manuscript.

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg