A novel sort of porous ceramic foam ball with modified surface for arsenic removal from aqueous solution

A sort of lightweight porous ceramic foam ball that can float on the water was recently made from the natural zeolite. The diameters of porous ball and its macroscopic pores are around 5 and 1 mm, respectively. Such ball surface could be modified to activate in different ways, i. e. loading the active alumina or desilicating the ball. Both of modified products have been investigated to adsorb the toxic ion of arsenic (As) in water effectively. This kind of porous ceramic ball was prepared by powder sintering, using natural clinoptilolite powder as the primary raw material. An active-alumina-loaded porous ceramic product was generated by sol-gel method with pseudoboehmite (AlOOH) as the main composition. The active Al atom on the porous ball surface could also be achieved by desilicating the ceramic ball in the NaOH solution. Such a desilicated product exhibited a good activity to adsorb the arsenic ion although carrying no active alumina. With this effective porous structure, the present products can be expected to become practically advantageous.