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Modelling the Effects of Competing Anions on Fluoride Removal by Functionalized Polyacrylonitrile Coated with Iron Oxide Nanoparticles


R Nabizadeh
M Jahangiri-rad
S Sadjadi

Abstract

Fe2O3 nano particles supported on functionalized poly-acrylonitrile was prepared. PAN-oxime-nano Fe2O3 was characterized by XRD, FTIR andTEMand used for fluoride adsorption. The adsorption capacity increased with increasing initial fluoride concentration and reaction time. Fluoride-removal performance of PAN-oxime-nano Fe2O3 was also tested in the presence of various competing anions usually found in drinking water. Competitive sorption between fluoride and competing anions showed a minimum preference for chloride counterions. Carbonate was the greatest competitor for fluoride removal followed by phosphate and sulphate. Counterion presence decreased fluoride adsorption capacity in order of CO32−> PO43−> SO42−> Cl. The presence of anions at various concentrations decreased fluoride adsorption capacity on PAN-oxime-nano Fe2O3 by 1.22 to 6.51 mg g–1. Effects of each two anions exist simultaneously in aqueous solution on fluoride adsorption was investigated using Tukey’s test (called also a pairwise comparison). Tukey’s HSD results indicate that the differences between various pairs of anions are significant (P < 0.05), except for chloride–sulphate (P = 0.08). In the design of PAN-oxime-nano Fe2O3 for environmental applications, the strong influence of the counter ions must be considered.

KEYWORDS Fluoride, PAN-oxime- nano Fe2O3, counterion, adsorption.


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eISSN: 1996-840X
print ISSN: 0379-4350