Phosphate Removal from Aqueous Solution by an Effective Clay Composite Material

Adsorption is an effective treatment process for removing phosphorus and thus controlling eutrophication. In this study, a clay composite material called Al–dolomite–montmorillonite (Al–DM) was prepared and characterized. Al–DM performed well with respect to phosphate removal, with its performance depending on the Al–DM loading, contact time, initial phosphorus concentration and initial solution pH. Adsorption mechanisms were investigated by conducting batch tests on phosphate adsorption using the Al–DM. The adsorption process fitted both the pseudo-second-order kinetics model and the intra-particle diffusion model. The Langmuir, Freundlich and BET models all adequately described the adsorption isotherm data. Thermodynamic studies showed that the adsorption process was endothermic and spontaneous in nature. Al–DM is an effective adsorbent for phosphate removal mainly due to its hierarchical porous structures as shown by characterization with SEM and EDS. Chemical changes occurring before and after adsorption in a water environment indicated that Al–DM had little negative effect on water quality.