Metformin-modified polyethersulfone magnetic microbeads for effective arsenic removal from apatite soil leachate...

Arsenic is the hazardous species and still is the global challenge in water treatment. Apatite soil is highly rich in arsenic species, and its mining presents various environmental issues. In this study, novel magnetic microbeads as adsorbent were developed for the elimination of hazardous arsenic ions from apatite soil's aqueous leachate before discharging into environment. The microbeads were fabricated with metformin polyether sulfone after being doped with zero-valent iron (Met-PES/ZVI). The microbeads were characterized using various techniques, including FTIR, XRD, SEM-EDX, VSM, and zeta potential analysis. The developed adsorbent demonstrated a significant elimination in arsenic in aqueous leachate, achieving 82.39% removal after 30 min of contact time, which further increased to 90% after 180 min of shaking. The kinetic analysis revealed that the pseudo-second-order model best represented the adsorption process. The intra-particle diffusion model indicated that the adsorption occurred in two steps. The Langmuir model (R² = 0.991), with a maximum adsorption capacity of 188.679 mg g^-1, was discovered to be the best fit for the experimental data as compared Freundlich model (R² = 0.981). According to the thermodynamic outcome (ΔG < -20 kJ/mol), the adsorption process was spontaneous and involved physisorption. These findings demonstrate the potential of magnetic Met-PES/ZVI microbeads as an efficient adsorbent for the removal of arsenic from apatite soil aqueous leachate.