Removal of Phosphate Ions from Aqueous Solution by Al2O3 Nanoparticles Loaded on Activated Carbon Synthesized from Aloe Vera Gum

A prepared Aluminum Oxide AL2O3 nanoparticle loaded on Aloe vera Barbadensis Gum Activated Carbon (ABGAC) using the sol-gel method to increase the surface area is employed for phosphate removal from synthetic aqueous solutions. The operating parameters in this study are pH 3-9, adsorbent dose of AL2O3/ABGAC 20-100 mg per 1-liter solution, contact time (CT) 5-105 minutes, magnetic field strength (MFS) 300-600 mTesla, wavelength of light is halogen lamp (white, green, red, yellow, blue, and sunlight), and initial phosphate concentration (Ci) 3.7-10.7 mg/L. The results indicated that phosphate can be removed efficiently with the highest removal efficiency of 85.52% under the following operating conditions: pH= 5, CT= 105 min, Dose= 60 mg, MFS= 600 mTesla, red light, and Ci = 7.6 mg/L. It has been proved that the Langmuir model significantly fits the experimental data. The obtained adsorption capacity range was 63.24 - 969.38 mg/g.