Application of response surface methodology for optimization of fluoride adsorption from aqueous solution using MgO-based nanocomposites

Deleterious effect of high concentration fluoride in water resources on the healthof human. The MgO supported Fe-Co-Mn nanoparticles were produced via coprecipitationmethod and characterized by SEM and FTIR techniques. In the work,the adsorption process optimization was performed by response surface modelingwith the help of Minitab 16 software. The effect of independent parameters suchas pH ( 3-11), the initial dose (0.02-0.1 g/L), the initial concentration of the fluoride(10-50 mg/L) and reaction time (30-180 min) were optimized to obtain the bestresponse of fluoride removal using the statistical Box-Behnken in responsesurface modeling procedure. Conditions for the pH(5), the initial concentrationof nanoparticle (0.05 g/L), the initial concentration of fluoride (50 mg/L) and theprocess time(90 min) were obtained as Min respectively. Under these conditions,the removal efficiency of the fluoride by MgO capped Fe-Co-Mn nanoparticlesequal to 84.64% were achieved. ANONA high correlation coefficients for theproposed model was also obtained (adjusted –R2=0.9993 and R2=0.9984). Theequilibrium data were analyzed using Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin and Dubinin-Radushkevich isotherm models. The Langmuir model was found to be describingthe data. Kinetic studies showed that the adsorption followed a pseudo-secondorder reaction.