Development of rare earth element doped magnetic biochars with enhanced phosphate adsorption performance

To improve the biochar's adsorption performance towards phosphate as well as to endow the biochar with magnetic property, novel rare earth element doped magnetic biochars, Ce/Fe3O4-BC and La/Ce/Fe3O4-BC, were prepared by separately co-precipitating cerium (Ce) and lanthanum (La) with FeCl3, FeCl2 and biochar. For comparison, Fe3O4-BC without doping Ce or La was also synthesized. The characterization results indicated that Ce and La ions were successfully doped into the magnetite. The La/Fe3O4-BC had higher magnetic saturation and point of zero charge than Ce/Fe3O4-BC. A series of batch experiment results demonstrated that the phosphate adsorption capacity of biochar has been greatly improved after Ce or La doping, especially La. The phosphate adsorption capacity of La/Fe3O4-BC was 20.5 mg/g at pH 6.5, which was 1.6 and 2.9 times than that of Ce/Fe3O4-BC and Fe3O4-BC, respectively. The adsorption kinetics and isotherms of phosphate onto La/Fe3O4-BC and Ce/Fe3O4-BC were best fitted by the pseudo-second order and Freundich model, respectively, indicating that the adsorption process was a multilayer process and controlled by chemical reaction. The combined results of batch experiments and physiochemical analyses revealed that the possible mechanisms were the formation of innersphere complex at neutral conditions and electrostatic attraction between positively charged adsorption sites and phosphate under acid conditions. The enhanced phosphate adsorption performance and endowed magnetic property indicated La/Fe3O4-BC could be used as a promising adsorbent in phosphate removal.