Facile synthesis of chrysanthemum-like mesoporous α-FeOOH and its adsorptive behavior of antimony from aqueous solution

Abstract

A chrysanthemum-like mesoporous α-FeOOH was synthesized by hydrothermal method and was applied to remove Sb(V) from Sb(V)-contaminated aqueous solution. XRD, ATR-FTIR, and Raman Spectrum characteristics indicated that the pure α-FeOOH phase had been successfully synthesized. The morphology and pore structure were investigated by FE-SEM and N₂ adsorption–desorption isotherms. The Sb(V) adsorption kinetics, isotherms, and mechanism on mesoporous α-FeOOH were studied. The results showed that Sb(V) adsorption on mesoporous α-FeOOH well-fitted pseudo-second-order kinetics and the maximum Sb(V) adsorption capacity of mesoporous α-FeOOH is 102.67 mg·g⁻¹, which is much higher than most of iron-based adsorbents. The negative value of ΔG° and ΔH° indicated that the Sb(V) adsorption process on the mesoporous α-FeOOH was a spontaneous and exothermic. The adsorption mechanism can be attribute to the surface complexation between Sb(V) and the mesoporous α-FeOOH. These findings suggest that the mesoporous α-FeOOH is a potential adsorbent for Sb(V) removal from aqueous solution.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Goethite
• antimony
• adsorption
• mesoporous
• surface complexation

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (China University of Mining and Technology, 2017XKZD10), Foundation of Liaoning Province Education Administration (No. LQ2017012), Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province (No. 20170540727), Science and Technology Program of Shenyang (No. 18-013-0-28), and the opening fund of Key Laboratory for environmental factors control of Agro-product quality safety (18nynzahj-2).