Effects of humic acid on arsenic(V) removal by zero-valent iron from groundwater with special

references to corrosion products analyses

Pinhua Rao 1 , Mark S.H. Mak, Tongzhou Liu, Keith C.K. Lai 2 , Irene M.C. Lo *

Chemosphere 75 (2009) 156–162

Dissolved iron was present in solutions, indicating that most of iron ions released from Fe 0
corrosion rapidly formed iron precipitates. It was reported that Fe 0 might be firstly oxidized to Fe
2+ in a Fe 0 –water system (Manninget al., 2002; Kanel et al., 2005). Fe 2+ would exist in the form
of hydroxide solids at pH above 8.0, but would be in solution at pH below 8.0. However, DO in
solution may further oxidize Fe 2+ to Fe 3+ which would exist in the form of hydroxide solids in
neutral and alkaline solutions. The dissolved iron from Fe 0 corrosion would form either ferrous or
ferric hydroxide precipitates in this pH range. These iron hydroxides would remove arsenic in
solutions by specific adsorption and by forming iron and arsenic co-precipitates during the
precipitation, resulting in the decrease of the arsenic concentration in solutions.

euhedral tabular structures shown in the SEM micrograph are suggestive of the presence of iron
compounds (Fig. 3a) (Lai and Lo, 2008). Further XRD analyses (Fig. 3b) confirmed that the corrosion
products included maghemite ( c -Fe2O3 ), lepidocrocite ( c -FeO(OH)), and magnetite (Fe3O4).

The principal mechanisms of arsenic removal by Fe 0 apparently involved adsorption, surface

precipitation, and co-precipitation with various corrosion products (Lackovic et al., 2000; Su and
Puls, 2001a; Manning et al., 2002; Nikolaidis et al., 2003).

Manning, B.A., Hunt, M.L., Amrhein, C., Yarmoff, J.A., 2002. Arsenic(III) and arsenic(V) reactions with
zerovalent iron corrosion products. Environ. Sci.Technol. 36, 5455–5461.

Lai, K.C.K., Lo, I.M.C., 2008. Removal of Cr(VI) by acid-washed Fe 0 under various groundwater
geochemistry conditions. Environ. Sci. Technol. 42, 1238–1244.

Lackovic, J.A., Nikolaidis, N.P., Dobbs, G.M., 2000. Inorganic arsenic removal by zero-valent iron.
Environ. Eng. Sci. 17, 29–39.
Determination of surface properties of iron hydroxide-coated alumina adsorbent prepared for
removal of arsenic from drinking water

József Hlavay∗ , Klára Polyák

Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 284 (2005) 71–77

The mechanisms of As sorption to these surfaces based on the spectroscopic, sorption, and EM
measurements are as follows: arsenate forms inner-sphere surface complexes on both amorphous
Al and Fe oxide, while arsenite forms both inner- and outer-sphere surface complexes on
amorphous Fe oxide and outer-sphere surface complexes on amorphous Al oxide [S. Goldberg, C.T.
Johnstont, J. Colloid Interface Sci. 234 (2001) 204–216.]. Adsorption on ferrihydrite occurs by ligand
exchange of the As species for OH 2 and OH − in the coor- dination spheres of surface structural Fe
atoms [A. Jain, K.P. Raven, R.H. Loeppert, Environ. Sci. Technol. 23 (1999) 1179–1184.]. While
arsenate adsorption resulted in the net release of OH – at pH 4.6 and 9.2, arsenite adsorption
resulted in net OH − re- lease at pH 9.2 and net H + release at pH 4.6. The amount of H + or OH −
released/adsorbed As (mol/L) varied with the As surface coverage, indicating that different
mechanisms of arsenic adsorption predominate at low versus high coverage. The results provide
evidence that during arsenite adsorp- tion at low pH, i.e., pH 4.6, the oxygen of the Fe–O–As bond
remained partially protonated as Fe–O(H)–As [A. Jain, K.P. Raven, R.H. Loeppert, Environ. Sci.
Technol. 23 (1999) 1179–1184.]. In all of these experiments, different metal oxides have been
prepared and used mainly in suspensions for understanding the phenomena of the equilibrium
reactions between oxides and arsenic ions. However, in the purification technology, the precipitates
cannot be advantageously used since large amounts of hazardous waste materials are produced
daily and the disposal cost can be tremendous. There is a clear need for inexpensive, but reliable
and efficient granular ad- sorbents for arsenic removal, based on the specific binding to ferric oxide
surfaces
Adsorptive removal of arsenic from water by an iron–zirconium binary oxide adsorbent

Zongming Rena , Gaosheng Zhang a, ⇑ , J. Paul Chen b

Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 358 (2011) 230–237