Arsenic (III) adsorption on iron acetate coated activated alumina: thermodynamic, kinetics and equilibrium approach

The adsorption potential of iron acetate coated activated alumina (IACAA) for removal of arsenic [As (III)] as arsenite by batch sorption technique is described. IACAA was characterized by XRD, FTIR, EDAX and SEM instruments. Percentage adsorption on IACAA was determined as a function of pH, contact time and adsorbent dose. The study revealed that the removal of As (III) was best achieved at pH =7.4. The initial As (III) concentration (0.45 mg/L) came down to less than 0.01 mg/L at contact time 90 min with adsorbent dose of 1 g/100 mL. The sorption was reasonably explained with Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. The thermodynamic parameters such as ΔG0, ΔH0, ΔS0 and Ea were calculated in order to understand the nature of sorption process. The sorption process was found to be controlled by pseudo-second order and intraparticle diffusion models.