Efficient removal of arsenic and chromium from waste water by solvent free synthesized Fe2O3/AlSBA-15 adsorbent

Abstract Pollution of aquatic environment by hexavalent chromium and arsenic is of great concern for all organisms because of their carcinogenic property. The major source of Chromium contamination is leather industry where as arsenic contamination arises from mining and metal industry. Adsorption is an efficient and cost-effective method for removal of these toxic cations. Adsorption of toxic cations “As (V)” and “Cr (VI)” were studied by using Fe2O3/AlSBA-15 as Adsorbent. The Nanocomposite Mesoporous Fe2O3/AlSBA-15 were characterised by XRD, SEM (EDS), BET surface area and FTIR. We studied the adsorption of independent cations as well as in binary system with initial concentration of 10ppm solution of As+5 and Cr+6 cations. The effect of pH, effect of temperature and kinetics were studied. The kinetic model fitted well the pseudo-second order reaction. The pH 3.5 was the optimum condition for As (V) and pH 4.5 was for Chromium. With increasing temperature, adsorption of both ions decreases. In addition, we applied to real industrial effluent to examine the adsorption capacity of synthesized nanocomposite and found to be superior adsorbent.