Adsorption of phosphate onto lanthanum-doped coal fly ash—Blast furnace cement composite

We develop a high-performance adsorbent for phosphate removal from water or wastewater by impregnating lanthanum (La) on a coal fly ash—blast furnace cement composite (La-FACC). The optimized impregnation percentage of La and calcination conditions of the La-FACC were 1% and 800 ℃ for 2 h, respectively. The adsorption kinetics of phosphate onto the La-FACC was well fit by the intra-particle diffusion model, indicating that film and intra-particle diffusion were the rate-controlling step in the adsorption process of phosphate onto the La-FACC. The pseudo second-order kinetic model could also describe the adsorption kinetics of phosphate. Hence, adsorption of phosphate onto the La-FACC occurred mainly via chemisorption. The Langmuir isotherm was appropriate for describing the phosphate adsorption behavior onto the La-FACC. The monolayer maximum adsorption capacity was 24.9 mg-P g−1. The La-FACC showed high adsorption capacity and selectivity for phosphate with a wide range of pH, and with high concentrations of coexisting ions attributed to both formation of inner sphere complexes and electrostatic interaction. Magnesium ion slightly inhibited the adsorption of phosphate. Hence, the La-FACC developed in this study is a promising adsorbent for water treatment with a wide pH range and high ion strength. [Display omitted] •Lanthanum-doped adsorbent for phosphate was developed.•The lanthanum support carrier was mixture of coal fly ash and blast furnace cement.•The monolayer maximum adsorption capacity of the adsorbent was 24.9 mg-P g–1.•The adsorbent showed high adsorption capacity and selectivity for phosphate.•The adsorbent shown high adsorption capacity with wide pH.