Adsorption characteristics of phosphate ions by pristine, cacl2 and fecl3-activated biochars originated from tangerine peels

Abstract

This study has evaluated the removal efficiencies of phosphate ions (PO43−) using pristine (TB) and chemical-activated tangerine peel biochars. The adsorption kinetics and isotherm pre-sented that the enhanced physicochemical properties of TB surface through the chemical activation with CaCl2 (CTB) and FeCl3 (FTB) were helpful in the adsorption capacities of PO43− (equilibrium adsorption capacity: FTB (1.655 mg g−1) > CTB (0.354 mg g−1) > TB (0.104 mg g−1)). The adsorption kinetics results revealed that PO43− removal by TB, CTB, and FTB was well fitted with the pseudo-second-order model (R2 = 0.999) than the pseudo-first-order model (R2 ≥ 0.929). The adsorption iso-therm models showed that the Freundlich equation was suitable for PO43− removal by TB (R2 = 0.975) and CTB (R2 = 0.955). In contrast, the Langmuir equation was proper for PO43− removal by FTB (R2 = 0.987). The PO43− removal efficiency of CTB and FTB decreased with the ionic strength increased due to the compression of the electrical double layer on the CTB and FTB surfaces. Besides, the PO43− adsorptions by TB, CTB, and FTB were spontaneous endothermic reactions. These findings demonstrated FTB was the most promising method for removing PO43− in waters.