Removal of fluoride from aqueous solution by adsorption on Apatitic tricalcium phosphate using Box–Behnken design and desirability function

The adsorption method was used for fluoride removal from aqueous solution by Apatitic tricalcium phosphate. In this study, response surface methodology was employed for the removal of fluoride. Experiments were carried out as per Box–Behnken surface statistical design with four input parameters namely adsorbent dose (0.1–0.3 g), initial concentration (30–60 mg L−1), temperature (20–40 °C) and pH (4–11). Contact time (90 min) was taken as a fixed input parameter. Regression analysis showed good fit of the experimental data to the second-order polynomial model with coefficient of determination (R2) value of 0.966 and Fisher F-value of 10.28. Applying the method of the desirability function, optimization of adsorbent dose (29 g), initial concentration (60 mg L−1), T (40 °C) and pH (4) gave a maximum of 82.34% fluoride removal white desirability of 0.916 by Apatitic tricalcium phosphate. Dynamic adsorption data were applied to pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order rate equations. Pseudo-second-order kinetic model well expressed fluoride adsorption onto Apatitic tricalcium phosphate. According to the correlation coefficients, the adsorption of fluoride on the Apatitic tricalcium phosphate was correlated well with the Langmuir and Freundlich models.