- Thesis topic: Phosphate removal performance of magnetic Carbon-shelled Magnetite functionalized with Lanthanum (MFC@La(OH)3)

- Doi: https://doi.org/10.6840/cycu202000873

- Abstract: 

        Phosphate naturally exists in form of PO43-, is a crucial element for all known forms of life on Earth with enormous application in humans daily, where it mostly being utilized for Phosphate fertilizer, where possible run-off to the aquatic environment is no longer a fresh finding. Adsorption had been considered to be the best and most suitable method when it comes to Phosphate removal, and Fe3O4 is a potential candidate for its natural magnetism, low toxicity and economic synthesis procedure. In this study, magnetic Fe3O4 Carbon-shell (MFC) functionalization with Lanthanum had been successfully produced with various weight ratio between Fe and La utilizing facile procedure and is compared with another well-known adsorbent, which is Biochar derived from watermelon. The nano-composite is proven to be Pseudo-second-order kinetic model and Freundlich isotherm model compatible, thus indicating its heterogeneous surface layer with multi-linearity adsorption mechanism. 89% of Phosphate can be removed thanks to its high adsorption capacity of 30.85 mg P/g, which is superior to the performance of watermelon Biochar at only nearly 13% efficiency with 1.1 mg P/g maximum capacity. Moreover, MFC@La(OH)3 had also expressed its stable reusability throughout 5 continuously usages and regeneration, albeit slowly decrease in removal efficiency to 48%.

Keywords: Phosphate, adsorption, magnetic Fe3O4 Carbon-shell, Lanthanum