Cr(VI) Removal from Water with Amorphous Graphite Concentrate Contaminated by Iron

ABSTRACT

This work attempted to explore the feasibility of using iron-contaminated graphite concentrate as an effective adsorbent for Cr(VI) removal from polluted water. Adsorption isotherm and kinetics were conducted to investigate the Cr(VI) removal capacity by the iron-contaminated amorphous graphite concentrates. In addition, SEM-EDS, XPS were carried out to further examine the solid samples. The results showed that amorphous graphite concentrate had a 1.52 mg/g adsorption capacity of Cr(VI), with the adsorption being fitted well with the pseudo-second-order kinetics model. In addition, chemical adsorption of Cr(V) on iron-contaminated graphite concentrate due to the formation of ≡Fe-O₄HCr and Fe₂-(CrO₄)₃ complexes was proposed. This study revealed that iron-contaminated amorphous graphite concentrate would be a cheap and good adsorbent for the removal of Cr(VI) from contaminated water.

KEYWORDS:

• Adsorbent
• chemical adsorption
• Cr(VI) removal
• iron-contaminated graphite

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Funding

The financial supports for this work from the Excellent Dissertation Cultivation Funds of Wuhan University of Technology (2016-YS-055), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2016M600621), the Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (2016CFA013), and Wuhan Science as well as and Technology Bureau (2016070204020156) are gratefully acknowledged.

Additional information

Funding

The financial supports for this work from the Excellent Dissertation Cultivation Funds of Wuhan University of Technology (2016-YS-055), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2016M600621), the Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (2016CFA013), and Wuhan Science as well as and Technology Bureau (2016070204020156) are gratefully acknowledged.