Enhanced adsorption and antifouling performance of anion-exchange resin by the effect of incorporated Fe3O4 for removing humic acid.

The application of anion-exchange resins (AERs) is limited by fouling, which increases the fresh resin dosage, regeneration frequency, and amount of regeneration effluent. In this study, five AERs with different Fe3O4 amounts was prepared by increasing the amount of Fe3O4 added to 100 g of monomer mixture for suspension polymerization from 0 g to 40 g. Results showed considerably improved pore volume and hydrophilicity of the resin with increased Fe3O4 content, leading to significantly enhanced adsorption and desorption of humic acid. A method of developing novel resins with enhanced adsorption and antifouling abilities by incorporating Fe3O4 was then proposed. The adsorbent structure resulting from the incorporated inorganic particles was found to be important in determining the adsorption behavior of a hybrid adsorbent.