Arsenic Organic Interaction: Removal by Synthesized Iron Functional Carbon Nanocomposite Through Batch Study

To remove arsenic from drinking water, it is necessary to employ suitable treatment methods. The presence of natural organic materials (NOM) seriously affects arsenic removal. The detrimental impact of NOM, which serves as an accumulation of total organic carbon (TOC), is not readily counteracted by conventional treatment methods. In this study, arsenic removal from organic-rich water environment was tried using already synthesized iron functional carbon nanocomposite. The effect of different factors namely effect of time, dose of adsorbent, pH, concentration of arsenic, temperature, and agitation speed were investigated in batch mode. To study the effect of organic matter on arsenic removal, fulvic acid (FA) was used as a model organic matter source. It was found that the effect of different parameters such as pH, arsenic concentration and adsorbent dose, contact time, stirring speed, and presence and absence of organic matter have antagonistic effect on arsenic removal when organic matter was present. The iron-functionalized reduced graphene oxide (fRGO) adsorbent showed higher arsenic removal from synthetic arsenic sample compared to FA impregnated arsenic sample. Based on the results of this investigation, the existence of TOC in the water sources led to a reduction of arsenic removal by 40%.