An investigation of phosphate adsorption from aqueous solution onto hydrous niobium oxide prepared by co-precipitation method

The synthetic hydrous niobium oxide has been used for phosphate removal from the aqueous solutions. The kinetic data correspond very well to the pseudo second-order equation. The phosphate removal tended to increase with a decrease of pH. The equilibrium data describe very well the Langmuir isotherm. The peak appearing at 1050 cm−1 in IR spectra after adsorption was attributed to the bending vibration of adsorbed phosphate. The adsorption capacities are high, and increased with increasing temperature. The evaluated ΔG° and ΔH° indicate the spontaneous and endothermic nature of the reactions. The adsorptions occur with increase in entropy (ΔS° positive) value suggest increase in randomness at the solid–liquid interface during the adsorption. A phosphate desorbability of approximately 60% was observed with water at pH 12, which indicated a relatively strong bonding between the adsorbed phosphate and the sorptive sites on the surface of the adsorbent.