[Performance and Mechanism of Ferric Tannate in the Removal of Inorganic Nitrogen from Wastewater]

A novel adsorbent material-ferric tannate was synthesized, and performances and mechanisms of NH4(+) -N, NO2(-) -N and NO3(-) -N were investigated via batch adsorption experiments. The results indicated that ferric tannate exhibited preferential adsorption for NH4(+) -N and NO2(-) -N. When the mass ratios of ferric tannate to NH4(+) -N and ferric tannate to NO2(-) -N were both 200, the removal efficiencies were both higher than 95%. The adsorption behaviors were analyzed with adsorption kinetic models, Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm adsorption models, and Weber-Morris equation. The results implied that NH4(+) -N and NO2(-) -N were adsorbed on the surface of ferric tannate in the forms of monolayer and multilayer, respectively. The pseudo-second order kinetic model was more suitable to describe the adsorption processes, and the external particle diffusion and surface adsorption played the key roles in the adsorption process. NH: -N could be combined with negative oxygen ions which distributed on the external surface of ferric tannate by the electrostatic interaction, whereas NO2(-) -N could be combined with ferric ions in ferric tannate by the electrostatic interaction and coordination. The present study provided scientific evidence for the application of ferric tannate as a potential adsorbent in the future.