Abstract
The trapping of arsenic by zero valent iron is strongly dependant on iron by-products. Among these, lepidocrite has been scarcely studied. In this work, we studied the adsorption of two inorganic (AsIII, AsV) and one organic (dimethylarsinic acid, DMA) arsenic species onto lepidocrocite. pH influence was considered in the range 5 to 9, which corresponds to natural water pH. Langmuir model was used to simulate As adsorption isotherms. Our results showed that lepidocrocite offers high adsorption capacities: up to 0,25, 0,41 and 1 mol for AsV, DMA and AsIII could be respectively trapped per kilogram of zero-valent iron. pH influence varied from one arsenic species to another: increasing pH improve AsIII and DMA sorption whereas it has a very low effect on AsV sorption.
Acknowledgments
This work was financially supported by the Project “COBIAS” of the French Research Agency (ANR PRECODD 2007) and the “Conseil Régional du Limousin.” The authors thank Pr. J.-C. Bollinger for his useful comments.