Experimental Studies on the Removal of Aluminium Ions from Synthetic Aqueous Solution by Hydroxyapatites

In this work we have presented the results obtained in the adsorption behavior of hydroxyapatite with different treatment towards aluminium ions from synthetic wastewaters. Experiments were performed in batch technique at different pH values, temperatures, sorbent dosage, contact time and initial aluminium concentration. The thermodynamic studies on the adsorption process of aluminium onto hydroxyapatite indicated that the process is spontaneous and endothermic. The Langmuir, Freundlich, Flory-Huggins, Dubinin-Radushkevich and Temkin equilibrium models were applied to the description of experimental data. The adsorption of aluminium follows the Langmuir adsorption isotherm. The kinetics of adsorption was evaluated using the pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order and intraparticle diffusion kinetic models. The rate of aluminium adsorption was successfully described by a pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The obtained results indicated that hydroxyapatite treated with Pluronic P123 surfactant has a higher sorption capacity toward aluminium ions (117.65 mg g-1) than hydroxyapatite treated with Pluronic F127 surfactant (109.89 mg g-1) while untreated hydroxyapatite exhibited the lowest one (104.17 mg g-1).