Abstract
In recent years, fluoride pollution in water is a problem that has attracted much attention from researchers. The removal of fluoride-containing wastewater by adsorption with metal oxide as an adsorbent is the most common treatment method. Based on this, the effect of the doping ratio of La(2)O(3), Fe(2)O(3,) and Al(2)O(3) on the fluoride-removal performance was discussed by constructing a phase diagram. In this study, the adsorption mechanism of nanocrystalline lanthanum oxide terpolymer was investigated by density functional theory calculation and experiment. The optimal pH condition selected in the experiment was three, and the adsorption kinetics of fluoride ions were more consistent with the quasi-second-order kinetic model. The adsorption thermodynamics was more consistent with the Langmuir model. When the La-Fe-Al ternary composite oxides achieved the optimal adsorption efficiency for fluoride ions, the mass synthesis ratio was Al(2)O(3):(Fe(2)O(3):La(2)O(3) = 1:2) = 1:100, resulting in a fluoride ion removal rate of up to 99.78%. Density functional calculations revealed that the La-Fe-Al ternary composite oxides had three important adsorption sites for La, Fe, and Al. Among them, the adsorption capacity for HF was Fe(2)O(3) > La(2)O(3) > Al(2)O(3), and for F(-) was La(2)O(3) > Al(2)O(3) > Fe(2)O(3). This provided good guidance for designing adsorbents to remove fluoride.