Removal of fluoride from groundwater by adsorption onto La(III)- Al(III) loaded scoria adsorbent

The La3+-Al3+ loaded scoria (La-Al-Scoria) was prepared as adsorbent for the fluoride removal from groundwater. The connecting time experiment indicated that the fluoride adsorption process reached equilibrium within 5 hours. The kinetics of fluoride ion adsorption onto La-Al-Scoria was followed the pseudo-second order with correlation coefficient value (R2) of 0.997. The isotherm data was well fitted to both of the Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm models, the R2 of Freundlich and Langmuir were 0.98 and 0.97, respectively. Subsequently, the adsorbent was characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), Energy dispersive analysis of X-ray (EDX), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) measurements. SEM visual expressed that the dense canal surface structure of natural scoria appeared a large amount of rod-like composite after modification. The XRD and XPS instrumental studies revealed that the La3+ and Al3+ were loaded on the surface of modified scoria and the fluoride ion was adsorbed on the La-Al-Scoria. The large amount of La-Al-O composite oxide existed onto the surface of La-Al-Scoria was the immanent cause for the excellent adsorption capacity of fluoride ion.