Manganese-modified activated carbon fiber (Mn-ACF): Novel efficient adsorbent for Arsenic

•Novel adsorbent MnSO4-modified activated carbon fiber (Mn-ACF) was reported.•Mn-ACF shows high efficiency in adsorption of As(V).•The adsorption isotherms and kinetics of As(V) on Mn-ACF were systematically studied.•pH and dosage of adsorbent on adsorption of As(V) were also studied. In this paper, a novel adsorbent, manganese-modified activated carbon fiber (Mn-ACF), was prepared and used for removal of As(V) from aqueous solution. The adsorbent was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Adsorption of As(V) onto the as-prepared adsorbent from aqueous solutions was investigated and discussed. The adsorption kinetic data were modeled using the pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second order, respectively. The experimental results indicate that the pseudo-second-order kinetic equation can better describe the adsorption kinetics. Furthermore, adsorption equilibrium data of As(V) on the as-prepared adsorbent were analyzed by Langmuir and Freundlich models, which suggested that the Langmuir model provides a better correlation of the experimental data. The adsorption capacities (qmax) of As(V) on Mn-ACF at various temperatures, determined using the Langmuir equation, are 23.77, 33.23 and 36.53mgg−1 at 303, 313 and 323K, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, this adsorption capacity for As(V) is much larger than those reported in literatures (7.50–16.58mgg−1). Notably, the qmax increases with increasing temperature, suggesting that adsorption of As(V) on Mn-ACF surface is an endothermic process, which is further confirmed by the calculated thermodynamic parameters including free energy, enthalpy, and entropy of adsorption process. The effect of experimental parameters such as pH and dosage of adsorbent on adsorption of As(V) were also studied. The present work will be useful in purification of groundwater.