Removal of arsenic from aqueous phase using magnetized activated carbon and magnetic separation

Arsenic (As) is one of the elements having most harmful impact on the human health. Arsenic is a known carcinogen and arsenic contamination of drinking water is affecting on humans in many regions of the world. Adsorption has been proved most preferable technique for the removal of arsenic. Many researchers have studied various types of solid materials as arsenic adsorbent, and iron oxide and its modified forms are considered as the most effective adsorbent in terms of adsorption capacity, recovery, and economics. However, most of all iron oxides have small surface area in comparing with common adsorbents in environmental application such as activated carbon but the activated carbon has weak sorption affinity for arsenic. We have used an activated carbon as base adsorbent and iron oxide coating on the activated carbon as high affinity sorption sites and giving magnetic attraction ability. In this study, adsorption properties of arsenic and magnetic separation efficiency of the magnetized activated carbon (MAC) were evaluated with variable iron oxide content. As the iron oxide content of the MAC increased, adsorption capacity has also gradually increased up to a point where clogging by iron oxide in the pore of activated carbon compensate the increased sorption capacity. The increase of iron oxide content of the MAC also affected magnetic properties, which resulted in greater magnetic separation efficiency. Current results show that magnetically modified common adsorbent can be an efficiency improved adsorbent and a feasible environmental process if it is combined with the magnetic separation.