Removal of arsenic(III) from aqueous solution by concrete-based adsorbents

The present paper investigates the adsorption of arsenic(III) (As(III)) onto 2 concrete-based low-cost materials, i.e., Aerocrete and Vermiculite impregnated by ferric oxyhydroxide. Adsorption experiments were performed to study the effect of initial pH, initial concentration of As(III), contact time, and ions usually present in water. No significant effect of the initial pH on the adsorption of As(III) by Aerocrete and Vermiculite was observed at the pH range of 4–8. The As(III) removal efficiency decreased at a high initial pH (i.e., 10). The Langmuir isotherm showed that the maximum As(III) adsorption capacity of Aerocrete and Vermiculite is 15.15 and 13.51 mg/g, respectively, which is higher than that observed using titanium dioxide (i.e., 3.52 mg/g), at pH 7 and 24 ±1 °C. A pseudo-second order kinetic model fitted well the experimentally obtained kinetic data. This suggests that chemisorption most probably controls the adsorption of As(III) on Aeroctere and Vermiculite. Significantly, As(III) (1 mg/L) could be removed almost completely by both Aeroctere and Vermiculite (1 g/L) in 30 and 60 min, respectively at pH 7 and 24 ±1 °C. Importantly, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Na⁺, HCO₃^?, SO₄^2?, and Cl^? ions had no significant effect on the adsorption of As(III) on Aeroctere and Vermiculite. The results showed that the proposed concrete-based adsorbents have the potential to remove As(III) from water.