Iron oxide hydroxide nanoflower assisted removal of arsenic from water

Non-magnetic polycrystalline iron oxide hydroxide nanoparticle with flower like morphology is found to play as an effective adsorbent media to remove As(III) from 300 mu g L-1 to less than 10 mu g L-1 from drinking water over wide range of pH. The nanoparticle was characterized by X-ray powder diffraction analysis (XRD), BET surface area, FTIR, FESEM and TEM images. TEM image clearly reveals flower like morphology with average particle size less than 20 nm. The nanoflower morphology is also supported by FESEM images. The maximum sorption capacity of the sorbent is found to be 475 mu g g(-1) for arsenic and the data fitted to different isotherm models indicate the heterogeneity of the adsorbent surface. Study on adsorption kinetics shows that adsorption of arsenic onto iron oxide hydroxide nanoflower follows pseudo-second order kinetic. The material can be regenerated up to 70% using dilute hydrochloric acid and it would be utilized for de-arsenification purposes. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.