Water defluoridation by aluminium oxide-manganese oxide composite material

In this study, aluminium oxide-manganese oxide (AOMO) composite material was synthesized, characterized, and tested for fluoride removal in batch experiments. AOMO was prepared from manganese(II) chloride and aluminium hydroxide. The surface area of AOMO was found to be 30.7m2/g and its specific density was determined as 2.78 g/cm3. Detailed investigation of the adsorbent by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry, inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry, and ion chromatography (for sulphate only) showed that it is composed of Al, Mn, SO4, and Na as major components and Fe, Si, Ca, and Mg as minor components. Thermogravimetric analysis was used to study the thermal behaviour of AOMO. X-ray diffraction analysis showed that the adsorbent is poorly crystalline. The point of zero charge was determined as 9.54. Batch experiments (by varying the proportion of MnO, adsorbent dose, contact time, initial F concentration, and raw water pH) showed that fluoride removal efficiency ofAOMO varied significantly with percentage of MnO with an optimum value of about I11% of manganese oxide in the adsorbent. The optimum dose of the adsorbent was 4 g/L which corresponds to the equilibrium adsorption capacity of 4.8 mg F-/g. Both the removal efficiency and adsorption capacity showed an increasing trend with an increase in initial fluoride concentration of the water. The pH for optimum fluoride removal was found to be in the range between 5 and 7. The adsorption data were analysed using the Freundlich, Langmuir, and Dubinirn-Radushkevich models. The minimum adsorption capacity obtained from the non-linear Freundlich isotherm model was 4.94 mg F-/g and the maximum capacity from the Langmuir isotherm method was 19.2mg F-/g. The experimental data of fluoride adsorption on AOMO fitted well to the Freundlich isotherm model. Kinetic studies showed that the adsorption is well described by a non-linear pseudo-second-order reaction model with an average rate constant of 3.1 x 10(-2) g/min mg. It is concluded that AOMO is a highly promising adsorbent for the removal of excess fluoride from drinking water.