Phosphate recovery from aqueous solution through adsorption by magnesium modified multi-walled carbon nanotubes

In this study, multi-walled carbon nanotubes modified by magnesium (Mg@CNT) was prepared as a novel adsorbent to recover phosphate from wastewater. Mg@CNT with the mass ratio of 0.48 (Mg versus MWCNTs) was the most efficient for phosphate adsorption and the maximum experimental adsorption capacity was up to 198 mg P/g. The Mg@CNT characterization was done by Field emission scanning electron microscope coupled with energy-dispersive spectroscopy detector (FESEM-EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), surface area analyzer (BET), Transmission electron microscope coupled with energy-dispersive spectroscopy detector (TEM-EDS). The MgO nanoflakes spread on the surface of multi-walled carbon nanotubes and reacted with phosphate to generate Mg₃(PO₄)₂·10H₂O as the end product. Phosphate adsorption on Mg@CNT was chemisorption onto heterogeneous surface according to the kinetic model and isotherm model fitting results. Several common co-existing ions, e.g., Cl^-, NO₃^- and humic acid, had no obvious negative impact on the phosphate adsorption capacity; while SO₄^2- and CO₃^2- expressed stronger negative impacts and led to 13.2% and 39.5% decrease in phosphate adsorption capacity, respectively. After five adsorption-desorption cycles, Mg@CNT still maintained more than 80% adsorption capacity of the initial and high phosphate desorbability. These results implied that Mg@CNT possessed great application potential in phosphate recovery.