Nitrate adsorption from aqueous solutions by calcined ternary Mg-Al-Fe hydrotalcite

Calcined ternary hydrotalcite like compounds had been synthesized by co-precipitation and calcined at 450 °C for 6 h. It had been applied into the nitrate removal from aqueous solutions. Various factors during adsorption process, such as chemical composition of adsorbents, adsorbent dosage, initial concentration of nitrate, initial pH and co-existing anions on nitrate adsorption had been investigated. It was found that 1.5 g/L CHTlcs (Mg/Al/Fe molar ratio = 3:0.1:0.9) could achieve ideal adsorption efficiency at an initial nitrate concentration of 100 mg/L. The value of pH had little effect on nitrate adsorption. The co-existing anions had the inhibitory effect on nitrate adsorption, which was in the order of PO₄^3- > SO₄^2- > Cl^- > ClO₄^-. The batch adsorption studies showed that experimental data were well described by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and Langmuir isotherm model, and the maximum isotherm adsorption capacity was 123.305 mg/g. The adsorption of nitrate was a spontaneous exothermic process with the reduction of entropy. The proposed adsorption mechanism obtained from characterization was that CHTlcs uptake nitrate through reconstruction effect and adsorption on external surface.