Combustion synthesis of some iron oxides used as adsorbents for phenol and p-chlorophenol removal from wastewater

The effect of the fuel nature and of the reaction atmosphere (in air/in the absence of air) on the synthesis of iron oxides by the combustion method was investigated. Working in air, using urea with ammonium chloride as fuel, the final product of reaction is alpha-Fe2O3. Working in the absence of air, using oxalic, tartaric, respectively, citric acid as fuel, the single phase resulted in combustion reaction was Fe3O4. From the synthesized iron oxides investigated as potential sorbents for the removal of phenol and p-chlorophenol (PCP) from wastewater, only the sorbents obtained using tartaric acid as fuel (S3) and those obtained using citric acid as fuel (S2) show adsorption capacity for the two pollutants. The sorbent S3 shows better adsorption capacity for both phenol and for PCP compared with sorbent S2.