Characterization and adsorption properties of a lanthanum-loaded magnetic cationic hydrogel composite for fluoride removal.

In this study, a novel lanthanum-loaded magnetic cationic hydrogel (MCH-La) was synthesized for fluoride adsorption from drinking water. The adsorption kinetics, isotherms, and effects of pH and co-existing anions on fluoride uptake by MCH-La were evaluated. FTIR, Raman and XPS were used to analyze the fluoride adsorption mechanism of MCH-La. Results showed that MCH-La had positive zeta potential values of 23.6-8.0 mV at pH 3.0-11.0, with the magnitude of saturation magnetization up to 10.3 emu/g. The fluoride adsorption kinetics by MCH-La fitted well with the fractal-like-pseudo-second-order model, and the adsorption capacity reached 93% of the ultimate adsorption capacity within the first 10 min. The maximum fluoride adsorption capacity for MCH-La was 136.78 mg F(-)/g at an equilibrium fluoride concentration of 29.3 mg/L and pH 7.0. Equilibrium adsorption data showed that the Sips model was more suitable than the Langmuir and Freundlich models. MCH-La still had more than 100 mg of F(-)/g adsorption capacity at a strongly alkaline solution (pH > 10). The adsorption process was highly pH-dependent, and the optimal adsorption was attained at pH 2.8-4.0, corresponding to ligand exchange, electrostatic interactions, and Lewis acid-base interactions. With the exception of both anions of HCO3(-) and SiO4(4-), Cl(-), NO3(-), and SO4(2-) did not evidently prevent fluoride removal by MCH-La at their real concentrations in natural groundwater. The fluoride adsorption capacity of the regenerated MCH-La approached 70% of the fresh MCH-La from the second to fifth recycles. FTIR and Raman spectra revealed that C-O and CO functional groups on MCH contributed to the fluoride adsorption, this finding was also confirmed by the XPS F 1s spectra. Deconvolution of C 1s spectra before and after fluoride adsorption indicated that the carboxyl, anhydride, and phenol groups of MCH were involved in the fluoride removal.