Ability of iron(III)‐loaded carboxylated polyacrylamide‐grafted sawdust to remove phosphate ions from aqueous solution and fertilizer industry wastewater: Adsorption kinetics and isotherm studies

Abstract Iron(III)‐loaded carboxylated polyacrylamide‐grafted sawdust was investigated as an adsorbent for the removal of phosphate from water and wastewater. The carboxylated polyacrylamide‐grafted sawdust was prepared by graft copolymerization of acrylamide and N,N′‐methylenebisacrylamide onto sawdust in the presence of an initiator, potassium peroxydisulfate. Iron(III) was strongly attached to the carboxylic acid moiety of the adsorbent. The adsorbent material exhibits a very high adsorption potential for phosphate ions. The coordinated unsaturated sites of the iron(III) complex of polymerized sawdust were considered to be the adsorption sites for phosphate ions, the predominating species being H2PO ions. Maximum removal of 97.6 and 90.3% with 2 g L−1 of the adsorbent was observed at pH 2.5 for an initial phosphate concentration of 100 and 250 μmol L−1, respectively. The adsorption process follows second‐order kinetics. Adsorption rate constants as a function of concentration and temperature and kinetic parameters, such as ΔG±, ΔH±, and ΔS±, were calculated to predict the nature of adsorption. The L‐type adsorption isotherm obtained in the sorbent indicated a favorable process and fitted the Langmuir equation model well. The adsorption capacity calculated by the Langmuir adsorption isotherm gave 3.03 × 10−4 mol g−1 of phosphate removal at 30°C and pH 2.5. The isosteric heat of adsorption was also determined at various surface loadings of the adsorbent. The adsorption efficiency toward phosphate removal was tested using industrial wastewater. Different reagents were tested for extracting phosphate ions from the spent adsorbent. About 98.2% of phosphate can be recovered from the adsorbent using 0.1M NaOH. Alkali regeneration was tried for several cycles with a view to recover the adsorbed phosphate and also to restore the adsorbent to its original state. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 84: 2541–2553, 2002