LEAD SORPTION EFFICIENCIES OF NATURAL AND SYNTHETIC MN AND FE-OXIDES

Abstract

Lead sorption efficiencies (sorption per specific surface area) were measured for a number of natural and synthetic Mn and Fe-oxides using a flow-through reactor. The Mn-oxide phases examined included synthetic birnessite, natural and synthetic cryptomelane, and natural and synthetic pyrolusite; the Fe-oxides studied were synthetic akaganéite, synthetic ferrihydrite, natural and synthetic goethite, and natural and synthetic hematite. The sorption flow study experiments were conducted with 10 ppm Pb with an ionic strength of either 0.01 M NaNO3 or 0.01 M KNO3, both at pH 5.5. The experimental effluent solution was analyzed using aqueous spectroscopic methods and the reacted solids were analyzed using microscopy (field emission scanning electron microscopy, FE-SEM), structure analysis (powder X-ray diffraction, XRD), bulk chemical spectroscopy (energy dispersive spectroscopy, EDS), and surface sensitive spectroscopy (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, XPS). Overall and under these conditions, the synthetic Mn-oxides have higher sorption efficiencies than the natural Mn-oxides, which in turn are higher than the natural and synthetic Fe-oxides. Only natural pyrolusite had a sorption efficiency as low as the Fe-oxides. Most of the natural and synthetic Fe-oxides examined in this study removed about the same amount of Pb from solution once normalized to BET N2 surface area, although synthetic akaganéite and hematite were significantly less reactive than the rest.