Adsorption behavior and mechanism of tripolyphosphate on synthetic goethite

Abstract

In order to study the transport behavior of tripolyphosphate (TPP) in aqueous solutions, the adsorption process of TPP on synthetic goethite, which exists stably in supergene environment, has been systematically studied. The adsorption properties under different conditions (pH, electrolyte presence, and temperature) were investigated. The adsorption of TPP in the presence of humic acid (HA)/fulvic acid (FA) has also been discussed in this paper. The results indicated that the adsorption capacity quickly increased within the first hour and equilibrium was reached within 24 h. The adsorption capacity decreased from 1.98 to 0.27 mg·g-1 upon increasing the pH from 8.5 to 11.0, whereas the adsorption of TPP on goethite hardly changed with increasing electrolyte concentration. The results of analysis of the kinetic and isothermal models showed that the adsorption was more in accord with the pseudo second-order equation and Freundlich model. The adsorption capacity decreased obviously regardless of the order of addition of TPP, HA, and goethite. Subsequent addition of FA led to a large increase in the adsorption capacity, which might be attributed to the adsorption ability of FA. According to the predictions of the kinetic and isothermal models and the spectroscopic evidence (X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and scanning electron microscope (SEM)), the adsorption mechanism may be mainly based on surface complexation and physical adsorption.