ADSORPTION OF FLUORIDE USING SIO2 NANOPARTICLES AS ADSORBENT

Presence of Fluoride in water is safe and effective when used as directed, but it can be harmful at high doses. In the present paper SiO2 nanoparticles as a adsorbent is used for removal of fluoride from aqueous solution. The effect of various operating parameters such as initial concentration of F-, Contact time, adsorbent dosage and pH were investigated. Equilibrium isotherms were used to identify the possible mechanism of the adsorption process. Maximum adsorption capacity of the SiO2 nanoparticles was 49.95 mg/g at PH=6, contact time 20 min, initial concentration of 25 mg/L, and 25±2 ◦C temperatures, when 99.4% of Fwere removed. The adsorption equilibriums were analyzed by Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. It was found that the data fitted to Langmuir (R2=0.992) better than Freundlich (R2=0.943) model. Kinetic analyses were conducted using pseudo first-and second-order models. The regression results showed that the adsorption kinetics was more accurately represented by a pseudo second-order model. These results indicate that SiO2 nanoparticles can be used as an effective, low-cost adsorbent to remove fluoride from aqueous solution.