Abstract
Sorption, kinetic, thermodynamics and artificial neural network modelling of phenol and 3‑amino‑phenol in water on composite iron nano-adsorbent are described. The optimized conditions were 100g/L conc., 40min contact time, 11 pH, 5mg/10mL nanoparticles amounts, and 298K temperature. The data followed Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin and Dubinin-Radushkevich models. The values of ΔG0 (average value=−7.14kJmol−1 for phenol and 7.07kJmol−1 for amino-phenol), ΔH0 (−4.92kJmol−1 for phenol and−4.00kJmol−1 for amino-phenol) and ΔS0 (−7.0×10−3kJmol−1K−1 for phenol and 6.89×10−3 for amino-phenol) confirmed spontaneous adsorption. The mechanism of sorption was through film diffusion. The maximum percent uptakes of phenol and p‑amino‑phenol and were 85.0 and 80.0%. The method is fast, economic and capable to work at natural water pH. Therefore, the presented method may be used for the removal of phenol and amino-phenol from any water source.
•Composite iron nano-adsorbent was prepared by green technology.•Fast, economic and eco-friendly removal of phenols at natural pH of water•Methods are eco-friendly for the removal of phenols in water.