LAUSR

Chloride contamination of water from climate change and salty waste water is known as a serious issue of water and wastewater treatment. In this study, Ag/ARHA (activated rice husk ash) material was designed and fabricated as a novel adsorbent for chloride removal in aqueous solution. The deposition of Ag on ARHA material was done by a facile precipitation method using AgNO3 as precursor and NaBH4 as reductant. The material was then characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller analyses. In chloride removal test, the Ag/ARHA adsorbent showed high chloride capacity of 7.9 mgCl–/g Ag with good durability after at least ten cycles of adsorption–desorption. This high capacity could be due to the strong interaction between the ARHA support and Ag metal as well as the chemical adsorption of chloride onto silver nanoparticle surface on ARHA support with high surface area. Additionally, H2O2was proven as an effective solution for regeneration of the used Ag/ARHA adsorbent. Since the selectivity of Ag/ARHA for chloride removal was very high and seemly not affected by other anions, this novel adsorbent has a great potential for chloride contaminated water and wastewater treatment applications.