LAUSR

Abstract To improve the biochar’s adsorption performance towards phosphate as well as to endow the biochar with magnetic property, novel rare earth element doped magnetic biochars, Ce/Fe3O4-BC and La/Fe3O4-BC, were prepared by separately co-precipitating cerium (Ce) and lanthanum (La) with FeCl3, FeCl2 and biochar. For comparison, Fe3O4-BC without doping Ce or La was also synthesized. The characterization results indicated that Ce and La ions were successfully doped into the magnetite. The La/Fe3O4-BC had higher magnetic saturation and point of zero charge than Ce/Fe3O4-BC. A series of batch experiment results demonstrated that the phosphate adsorption capacity of biochar has been greatly improved after Ce or La doping, especially La. The phosphate adsorption capacity of La/Fe3O4-BC was 20.5 mg/g at pH 6.5, which was 1.6 and 2.9 times than that of Ce/Fe3O4-BC and Fe3O4-BC, respectively. The adsorption kinetics and isotherms of phosphate onto La/Fe3O4-BC and Ce/Fe3O4-BC were best fitted by the pseudo-second order and Freundich model, respectively, indicating that the adsorption process was a multilayer process and controlled by chemical reaction. The combined results of batch experiments and physiochemical analyses revealed that the possible mechanisms were the formation of inner-sphere complex at neutral conditions and electrostatic attraction between positively charged adsorption sites and phosphate under acid conditions. The enhanced phosphate adsorption performance and endowed magnetic property indicated La/Fe3O4-BC could be used as a promising adsorbent in phosphate removal.