Abstract

Hamzeh Ali Jamali¹, Cobra Hosseini², Mehdi Shirzad Siboni², Negar Pourvakhshoori ³, Mohsen Poursadeghiyan³ and Mehrdad Farrokhi^3,2

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.13005/ojc/330419

Removal of nutrient salts from the receiving water is an important consideration to control eutrophication.Among various nano sized materials, ZnO and Fe3O4 have much attention because ZnO nanoparticles exhibit efficient photocatalytic removal efficiency through adsorption and decomposition of organic contaminants. In this study, commercial magnetite was immobilized with ZnO by chemical wet method and it was used as an adsorbent to remove phosphate from aqueous solution. The phosphate adsorption can be well modeled by the Response Surface Methodology. The removal efficiency of phosphate was optimized as the function of adsorbent dosage, pH, initial phosphate concentration, and contact time, using Response Surface methodology. Maximum adsorption of ZnO–Fe₃O₄ was obtained at pH of3.1, contact time of 53.3 min, adsorbent dosage of 1.35 g/L and initial phosphate concentration of 36.2 mg/L. An empirical model for phosphate removal was developed as quadratic equation. Results from experiments will agree to results from model. This agreement confirms accuracy and approach of obtained model

Nanocomposite; ZnO–Fe3O4; RSM; Optimization; statistical modeling; phosphate removal

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