LAUSR

Abstract Decontamination of the toxic selenium compound, selenite (Se(IV)) and selenate (Se(VI)), from wastewater is imperative for environmental protection. Efficient approaches to remove Se(IV) and Se(VI) are in urgent needs. In this work, an accessible adsorbent Fe–OOH–bent was prepared and applied for the removal of Se(IV) and Se(VI) from wastewater. The batch experimental results demonstrate that Fe–OOH–bent exhibits high adsorption capacities of 5.01 × 10−4 and 2.28 × 10−4 mol/g for Se(IV) and Se(VI) respectively, which are higher than most of the reported bentonite based materials, especially in the case of Se(VI). Moreover, the Fe–OOH–bent displayed superior selectivity towards Se(IV) and Se(VI) even in the presence of excess competitive anions (Cl−, HCO3−, NO3−, SO42− and PO43−) and HA with concentrations of 1000 times higher than Se(IV) and Se(VI). By evaluating the adsorption ratio of Se(IV) and Se(VI), the reusability of Fe–OOH–bent was great through five adsorption-desorption cycles. For practical application, the column experiments were performed with simulated wastewater samples. The breakthrough and eluting curves of Se(IV) and Se(VI) were investigated through the columns packed with Fe–OOH–bent, and the results show that Se(IV) and Se(VI) can be successfully separated and recovered using 0.1 mol/L Na2SO4 (pH = 9.0) and 0.1 mol/L Na3PO4 (pH = 9.0), respectively. Our work provides a new approach for fractional separation as well as the recovery of Se(IV) and Se(VI) from wastewater.