Selective adsorption and removal ability of pine needle-based activated carbon towards Al(III) from La(III) |
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Authors: | RuiYan Wu Yong Wang XiaoYan Xue TuoPing Hu JianFeng Gao |
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Affiliation: | Chemical Department, North University of China, Taiyuan, People’s Republic of China |
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Abstract: | Rare earth elements are an important strategic resource. As one of the most valuable member, lanthanum plays a key role in lanthanide. However, trace Al(III) impurity in lanthanum materials can seriously damage the performance of lanthanum materials. In this paper, a nitrogen-containing activated carbon, AC-PN-700, was synthesized using pine needle as raw material and KOH as activator. The AC-PN-700 was characterized by surface area analyzer, elemental analysis and FT-IR. The adsorption and selective ability of AC-PN-700 towards Al(III) were investigated. The BET specific surface area of AC-PN-700 was 596.4 m2.g?1, and the average pore diameter was 2.7?nm. Depend on its large specific surface, well-developed internal pore structure and abundant nitrogen-containing functional groups, the AC-PN-700 possesses strong adsorption affinity and excellent recognition selectivity towards Al(III). The adsorption capacity of AC-PN-700 towards Al(III) could reach to 3.89?mg.g?1, removal rate towards Al(III) was almost 100%, and relative selectivity coefficients with respect to La(III) is 9.5. The empirical Freundlich isotherm was found to describe well the equilibrium adsorption data. In addition, AC-PN-700 possesses better regeneration ability and reusability. |
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Keywords: | Activated carbon adsorption Al(III) pine needle remove |
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