Physicochemical Characterization of Regional Clay: Application to Phenol Adsorption

Phenol is one of the most toxic pollutants found in industrial waste. This work focuses on the removal of phenol using clay from the Sale region. Adsorbent was characterized by X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. The chemical analysis of this clay shows that the percentage of silicon and aluminium is quite high, and the percentage of calcium and iron is relatively high, so this material is rich in muscovite, quartz, and calcite. In addition to the presence of titanium dioxide (TiO2), which can give it a property of degradation of organic compounds under ultraviolet light, the pHPZC zero point of our material is 7.4. The results showed that the adsorption of phenol was well fitted by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms and that the best retention is obtained at a pH between 3 and 8.