Humic acid-nanoceria composite as a sustainable adsorbent for simultaneous removal of uranium(VI), chromium(VI), and fluoride ions from aqueous solutions

In this article, the multifunctional behavior of novel, efficient, and cost-effective humic acid–coated nanoceria (HA@CeO₂ NPs) was utilized for the sorptive removal of U(VI), Cr(VI), and F⁻ ions at different conditions. The production cost of HA@CeO₂ was $19.28/kg and was well characterized by DLS, FESEM, HRTEM, FTIR, XRD, XPS, and TGA. Batch adsorption study for U(VI) (at pH ~ 8), Cr(VI) (at pH ~ 1), and F⁻ (at pH ~ 2) revealed that the maximum percentage of sorption was > 80% for all the cases. From the contact time experiment, it was concluded that pseudo-second-order kinetics followed, and hence, the process should be a chemisorption. The adsorption study revealed that U(VI) and Cr(VI) followed the Freundlich isotherm, whereas F⁻ followed the Langmuir isotherm. Maximum adsorption capacity for F⁻ was 96 mg g⁻¹. Experiments in real water suggest that adsorption is decreased in Kaljani River water (~ 12% for Cr(VI) and ~ 11% for F⁻) and Kochbihar Lake water (25.04% for Cr(VI) and 20.5% for F⁻) because of competing ion effect. Mechanism was well established by the kinetic study as well as XPS analysis. Because of high adsorption efficiency, HA@CeO₂ NPs can be used for the removal of other harmful water contaminants to make healthy aquatic life as well as purified drinking water.