Enhanced fluoride removal performance by Ce–Zn binary metal oxide: Adsorption characteristics and mechanism

Abstract Excess fluoride in water can result in serious health problems. For this reason, we have developed a novel Ce–Zn binary metal oxide (Ce–Zn BMO) adsorbent for high-performance fluoride adsorption from drinking water. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X–ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results demonstrated both electrostatic interactions and ion exchange of surface hydroxyl groups of Ce–Zn BMO with fluoride ions. The Ce–Zn BMO adsorbent exhibited a good Langmuir adsorption capacity of 194 mg/g at pH 7.0. The adsorbent has a wide pH range (3–7) applicability and negligible coexisting ion effect that makes it an attractive sustainable material for field applications. Column adsorption studies indicated the efficient treatable volume as ∼94-bed volume (BV) using natural water when the breakthrough point in the column was 1.5 mg/L. Furthermore, six cycles reusability without much loss of adsorption capacity and effective column treatment of fluoride contaminated water indicated that Ce–Zn BMO could be developed into an efficient technology for high performance elevated fluoride water treatment.