Chromium adsorption from water using mesoporous magnetic iron oxide-aluminum silicate adsorbent: An investigation of adsorption isotherms and kinetics

Abstract

One of the prominent issues of the environment is water quality deterioration due to release of industrial wastewater containing heavy metals. This research work focused on the synthesis of mesoporous magnetic iron oxide-aluminum silicate (Fe₃O₄-Al₂SiO₅) adsorbent via deposition-precipitation method and to assess its efficiency for chromium (VI) adsorption. The study demonstrated that the prepared mesoporous adsorbent exhibit large surface area (476.0 m²g^-1) and mesoporous structure, which enhances the adsorbate adsorption. From the results it was noticed that maximum removal (99.9%) was occurring at neutral pH and the adsorption data was find in best fitting to both Langmuir isotherm as well as with pseudo-second-order kinetic models. The study further concluded that the mesoporous adsorbent can be reused following several cycles and that very slight effect of coexisting competitive ions was noticed. The study recommends that after further modification and activation, the desired mesoporous adsorbent material could be utilized for water purification at industrial level.