Synthesis of mesostructured ferric oxyhydroxides templated by alkyl surfactants: Effect of pH, F− and solvents, and their adsorption isotherms for As(V)

Abstract Mesostructured ferric oxyhydroxides (MFOs) were synthesized using both cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and sodium dodecylsulfonate (SDS) as templates in the present study. For CTAB-templating route, the effect of pH and fluoride ions on the resulting MFOs has been evaluated, and the active role of fluoride ions in promotion the mesostructural ordering was verified. Besides, the effect of solvents and hydrolysis ratio on the synthetic layered MFOs was examined via SDS-templating route. X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and nitrogen physisorption were employed to characterize the MFOs before two typical MFOs with surface areas of 144.7 and 88.1 m 2 g −1 , respectively, were evaluated as potential adsorbent for As(V) removal. Both MFOs presented adsorption isotherms well fitting the Freundlich equation. The two MFOs exhibited adsorption capacities of 75.19 and 10.68 mg g −1 , respectively, and could be adopted as adsorbent for As(V) removal.