Removal of ultralow concentration arsenic by high-temperature synthesized tetragonal CuFe2O4 with surficial grafting hydroxyl

Copper ferrite (CFO) as an excellent spinel adsorption material can significantly reduce the concentration of As in water. This work explores a method to synthesize hydroxyl-rich copper ferrite (h-CFO) at a low cost and on a large scale via combining sintering method and hydrothermal treatment using CuO and Fe2O3 as raw materials. This work has optimized the performance of h-CFO via adjusting atmosphere, temperature, holding time, and used it to removal As(V) in water. The results show that tetragonal CFO prepared at 800 °C for ten hours (h-CFO800-10 h-Air) has the best As(V) removal performance, h-CFO800-10 h-Air can reduced the concentration of As(V) from 10 mg L−1 to 4.77 μg L−1 in the acidic aqueous solution. Through XPS, BET, FTIR and Raman spectroscopy characterization, it can be known that the ability of h-CFO is related to its crystal form and the number of hydroxyls on its surface. The result of XPS and Raman spectroscopy also show that the As ion-containing in water will be interacted with the hydroxyls of the As ion-containing which has been adsorbed on h-CFO to form secondary adsorption.