Phosphorus Removal from Aqueous Solution by Adsorption using Silver Nanoparticles: Batch Experiment

Abstract

This work developed silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) as an effective adsorbent for phosphorus removal. The influence of various factors on the efficiency of phosphorus removal, such as the type of AgNPs, initial pH, initial phosphorus concentration, contact time and adsorbent dose were also studied through batch experiments. Results showed that the best condition for phosphorus adsorption onto AgNPs occurred at the solution pH of 6 and the contact time of 120 min. The calculated result from the Langmuir model showed the maximum phosphorus adsorption capacity of 177.28 mg/g at pH 6, 120 min reaction time, 0.23 mg AgNPs/25 mL, and initial concentration of 10 mg/L. With R2 = 0.959, the Langmuir was clearly the best fitting to describe the isotherm model of the phosphorus adsorption process. In addition, the phosphorus adsorption kinetic by AgNPs complied with the pseudo-second order model (R2 = 0.929). The results from this work demonstrated that AgNPs can be employed as a highly effective adsorbent for phosphorus adsorption from wastewater and aqueous solutions.