New bimetallic adsorbent material based on cerium-iron nanoparticles highly selective and affine for arsenic(V)

Bimetallic oxy(hydroxides) have gain great interest in water treatment systems based on adsorption processes. Their high OH groups density, in addition to inheriting the oxides properties make them highly promising adsorbents of anions. In this work, highly affine and selective bimetallic oxyhydroxides of cerium and iron (Ce:Fe–P's) for arsenic(V) were synthesized by implementing an assisted microwave methodology. The Ce:Fe–P's were characterized by various techniques (SEM, FTIR, XRD and XPS) and the As(V) adsorption capacity and kinetics as well as the effect of pH and the presence of coexisting anions were determined. The results showed that Ce:Fe–P's have an outstanding As(V) adsorption capacity (179.8 mg g−1 at Ce = 3 mg L−1) even at low concentrations (120 mg g−1 at Ce = 37 μg L−1). Moreover, the adsorption equilibrium was reached very fast, just in 3 min, with an adsorption rate of 0.123 mg min−1, that is, 80% of the initial As(V) concentration of 5 mg L−1 was removed in the first 3 min. The arsenic adsorption capacity decreased only up to 20% at pH above 7, attributed to electrostatic repulsions due to the adsorbent's pHPZC, which was 6.8. On the other hand, the arsenic adsorption capacity of Ce:Fe–P's decreased just 21% in the presence of 10 mg L−1 of each of the following competing anions: F−, Cl−, SO42−, NO3−, PO43− and CO32−, which usually coincide in contaminated water with As(V). Ce:Fe–P's has proven to be one of the most promising As(V) adsorbent materials reported so far in the literature, because it presented an outstanding adsorption capacity and at the same time a very fast adsorption speed. Furthermore, the pH and the concentration of coexisting anions caused little interference in the adsorption processes. Due to the above, the Ce:Fe–P's is already in the process of intellectual protection.