Removal of antimonate (Sb(V)) from aqueous solutions and its immobilization in soils with a novel Fe(III)-modified montmorillonite sorbent

• Published in: Environmental science and pollution research international 2022, Vol.29 (2), p.2073-2083
• Main Authors: Bagherifam, Saeed, Komarneni, Sridhar, van Hullebusch, Eric D., Stjepanović, Marija
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adsorption; Antimony; Antimony - analysis; Aquatic Pollution; Aqueous solutions; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Bentonite; Bioavailability; Contamination; Distilled water; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecotoxicology; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Health; Environmental science; Environmental Sciences; Ferric Compounds; Gastric juice; Humans; Immobilization; Iron; Montmorillonite; Public concern; Research Article; Soil; Soil amendment; Soil contamination; Soil investigations; Soil Pollutants - analysis; Soils; Sorbents; Sorption; Terrestrial environments; Waste Water Technology; Water; Water Management; Water Pollution Control
• ISSN: 0944-1344; 1614-7499
• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-021-15765-7

Over the past decades, contamination of terrestrial environments with antimony (Sb) has aroused a great deal of public concern. In this research, the efficacy of Fe(III)-modified montmorillonite (Mt) (Fe-Mt) for the removal of Sb(V) from aqueous solutions with Sb(V) concentration in the range of 0.2–1 mmol L −1 and immobilization of Sb(V) in soils spiked with 250 mg Sb(V) kg −1 was investigated. The immobilizing mechanisms of the modified clay were assessed by fitting the experimental sorption data with the Langmuir and Freundlich sorption models and a series of single and sequential extraction studies. The results showed that the adsorption data had a better fit with the Langmuir equation ( R 2 : 0.99) and Fe-Mt could efficiently remove up to 95% of Sb(V) at lower concentration ranges. The concentrations of Sb(V) in exchangeable fraction of modified Community Bureau of Reference (BCR) sequential extraction and distilled water extracts of the amended soils decreased dramatically by up to 60% and 92%, respectively. Furthermore, the bioaccessibility of Sb(V) in simulated human gastric juice reduced remarkably by 52% to 60%, depending upon the soil fraction sizes. The results confirmed that Fe-Mt could be a promising candidate for the removal of Sb(V) from aqueous solutions and immobilization of Sb(V) in terrestrial environments. Graphical abstract