3.3.1 Factors affecting adsorption
Firstly, the dosage effect of adsorbent on boron adsorption was shown in Fig. 5a, it ranged from 0.2 to 5 g·L− 1 at 25 ºC and the initial boron concentration was 0.3 mol·L− 1. It can be seen that the adsorption capacity increased with the increase of the dosage and then gradually kept stable when the added dosage was more than 5 g·L− 1. This can be attributed to the availability of more adsorbent adsorption sites for the boron adsorption. However, when the effective active sites reached a state of equilibrium due to the utilization of all boron in the solution at higher dosage, the adsorption capacity barely increased and kept constant. The optimum dosage was found to be 5 g·L− 1 and used for the following experiments.
The influence of initial solution pH from 3 to10 on the adsorption capacity was also observed and shown in Fig. 5b. It is noted that the adsorption capacity of Fe3O4@SiO2-NH2 for boron firstly increased at acidic pH and then decreased at alkaline pH. The optimum pH value was about 6. This can be interpreted by the surface charge variation of the adsorbent and solution structure changes of boric acid with pH. Based on the zeta potential of Fe3O4@SiO2-NH2 (Fig. 4b), the acid-base behavior of the functional -NH2 groups under differential pH acted as the following equation [29]:
\(-\text{N}{\text{H}}_{2}+ {\text{H}}_{3}^{+}\text{O }\text{⇌}\text{ }\text{N}{\text{H}}_{3}^{+}+{\text{H}}_{2}\text{O}\) (< isoelectric point 4.59)
\(-\text{N}{\text{H}}_{2}+\text{O}{\text{H}}^{-}\text{⇌}\text{ }\text{N}{\text{H}}^{-}+{\text{H}}_{2}\text{O }\) (> isoelectric point 4.59)
The pH-dependent of boron species in boric acid solution was shown in Fig.S1 [30]. It can be seen that more than 94% of the boron species was the neutral boric acid when the pH was below 6. While the boric acid gradually changed into borate anions with the increasing of pH value. At acidic condition, the terminal -NH2 groups were protonated which is not favorable for the boron acid adsorption. Moreover, the acidic environment could facilitate the dissolution of the adsorbent and also decreased the adsorption capability. While at alkaline condition, the terminal -NH2 groups were deprotonated and the electrostatic repulsion between the deprotonation –NH2 groups and the borate anions decreased the adsorption sharply. Therefore, the near-neutral pH was more suitable for the boron adsorption.
Besides, the effect of initial boron concentration and the contact time on the adsorption was shown in Fig. 5c-d, respectively. The adsorption capacity showed a steady increase at lower boron concentration (0.05 to 0.3 mol·L− 1), and further concentration increase had no significant effect on the adsorption due to the saturation adsorption sites on the adsorbent surface. In Fig. 5d, it is noticeable that the adsorption reached its equilibrium quickly after 2 h contact time.
3.3.3 Adsorption kinetics, isotherms and thermodynamic study
The adsorption kinetics of boron on Fe3O4@SiO2-NH2 adsorbent was studied using the pseudo-first-order kinetic [32] and the pseudo-second-order kinetic [33] models given as the following:
pseudo-first-order model: \(\text{l}\text{n}({q}_{\text{e}}-{q}_{t})=\text{l}\text{n}{q}_{\text{e}}-{k}_{1}t\)(2)
pseudo-second-order model: \(\frac{t}{{q}_{t}}=\frac{1}{{k}_{2}{q}_{\text{e}}^{2}}+\frac{t}{{q}_{\text{e}}}\) (3)
where qe and qt are the adsorption capacity (mg/g) at equilibrium and time of t, respectively. k1 and k2 are the rate constant (g·mg− 1·h− 1).
The fitting results were shown in Fig. 7, and the parameters calculated were listed in Table S1. Based on the high correlation coefficient R2 = 0.9998, it was known that the adsorption followed the pseudo-second-order kinetic model, which indicated the chemisorption process was mainly controlled by the rate-limiting step.
The isotherms adsorption process of boron at temperatures of 288.15, 298.15, 308.15 and 318.15 K were investigated using Langmuir [34] and Freundlich [35] isotherm models expressed as the following:
Langmuir: \({q}_{\text{e}}=\frac{{q}_{\text{max}}·{K}_{\text{L}}·{c}_{\text{e}}}{{1+q}_{\text{max}}·{K}_{\text{L}}}\) (4)
Freundlich: \({q}_{\text{e}}={K}_{\text{F}}\text{∙}{c}_{e}^{1/n}\) (5)
where qmax, qe are the maximum and equilibrium adsorption capacity adsorption capacity (mg·g− 1), respectively. ce is the boron concentration at equilibrium (mg·L− 1), KL, KF are the adsorption equilibrium constant (L·mg− 1) and the adsorption capacity constant (mg·g− 1), respectively. n is the heterogeneity factor indicating the strength of adsorption.
The fitting curves of Langmuir isothermal model and Freundlich isothermal model were shown in Fig. 8 and the corresponding parameters were listed in Table S2. In Fig. 8a, it can be seen that the boron adsorption capacity adsorbed by Fe3O4@SiO2-NH2 decreased with the rising of temperature. This phenomenon was different with other boron adsorbents reported previously [36, 37] and can be ascribed to the anti-correlation between hydrogen bonding and temperature. As we known above, the hydrogen bonding was the main interaction during boron adsorption process, and it would gradually became weaker and weaker with the rising of temperature, which was not favorable for the boron adsorption. According to Fig. 8b-c, It was noted that both Langmuir and Freundlich models could describe the boron adsorption isotherms well since the correlation coefficient R2 > 0.96, and the qmax for Fe3O4@SiO2@NH2 was 51.19 mg·g− 1 at room temperature. But compared to the Langmuir model, the Freundlich model was more suitable for characterizing the adsorption isotherms.
The thermodynamic parameters can be obtained from the following equations [38]:
$$\text{l}\text{n}\text{K}=\frac{\varDelta S}{R}-\frac{\varDelta H}{RT}$$
6
$${\Delta }G=-RT\text{l}\text{n}K$$
7
where R is the universal gas constant (8.314 J·mol− 1·K− 1); T is the temperature (K); K can be calculated from the Freundlich model at different temperatures.
Based on the plot of lnK against 1/T (Fig. 8d), the thermodynamic parameters were summarized in Table 1. The determined negative values of ΔG and ΔH indicated the boron adsorption on Fe3O4@SiO2-NH2was a spontaneous and exothermic process, and the negative entropy suggested a decreased confusion at the interface of adsorbent-adsorbate during the adsorption process.
Table 1
Calculated thermodynamic parameters for boron adsorption on Fe3O4@SiO2-NH2.
T (K)
|
ΔG (KJ·mol− 1)
|
ΔH (KJ·mol− 1)
|
ΔS (J·mol− 1·K− 1)
|
288.15
|
-9.28
|
-0.20
|
-37.26
|
298.15
|
-9.13
|
308.15
|
-8.87
|
318.15
|
-8.10
|