Abstract
A low-cost functionalization method was used to treat diatomite, and an efficient adsorbent for ammonia nitrogen was prepared by optimizing the functionalization conditions. The functionalized diatomite (DTCA-Na) was characterized by SEM, EDS, BET, XRD, FT-IR, and TG. The results demonstrate that DTCA-Na has excellent adsorption performance after being modified with H2SO4 (60.00 wt.%), NaCl (5.00 wt.%), and calcination at 400 °C for 2 h. While studying the effect of adsorption factors on the removal of ammonia nitrogen, the kinetic and thermodynamic behaviors in the adsorption process were discussed. The removal efficiency of the simulated wastewater with the initial ammonia nitrogen concentration of 10.00 mg L−1 by the DTCA-Na was more than 80% when the contact time was 60 min, pH was 6–10, the dosage of adsorbent was 1.00 g, and the temperature was 25 °C. The adsorption process of ammonia nitrogen was conformed to the pseudo-first-order and Langmuir isothermal model. The removal efficiency of ammonia nitrogen was still above 80% after 5 times adsorption–desorption experiments. The DTCA-Na has a brighter prospect of application in the field of ammonia nitrogen wastewater treatment due to its excellent adsorption performance and low-cost advantage.
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The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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The authors express appreciation to the Yunnan Minzu University for supporting this investigation. The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and editors.
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This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21767030), the Science and Technology Department of Yunnan Province (No. 202105AC160055), and College Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Project.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Guizhen Li, Shuju Fang, Hongyu Shi, Junxiu Ye, and Xuemei Ding. Conceptualization, supervision, funding acquisition, and writing—review and editing were performed by Lijun Luo, Shuju Fang, Hongbin Wang, Guizhen Li, and Min Yang. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Gufeng Li, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Fang, S., Li, G., Shi, H. et al. Preparation of low-cost functionalized diatomite and its effective removal of ammonia nitrogen from wastewater. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 98881–98894 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-22522-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-22522-x