Synthesis of magnesium aluminates nanoparticles for the removal of arsenic from drinking water

Abstract The presence of arsenic in the drinking water causes different diseases in human such as skin lesion, cancer of the lungs, bladder, skin, prostate, kidney, nose, liver, brain, chronic airway obstruction and black foot disease. It has been reported that the concentration of arsenic is increasing in the different areas of Pakistan. Therefore, drinking water samples have been collected from different areas of (Kot chutta) district Dera Ghazi Khan, Punjab province, Pakistan and found that the arsenic concentration is much higher than recommended by world health organization (WHO) permissible level. So it is essential to remove the arsenic content from water to save the human’s life. The magnesium aluminate (MgAl2O4) synthesized by the coprecipitation method has been used as an adsorbent for the removal of arsenic from drinking water. The cubic structure, morphology and the composition of the synthesized adsorbent has been confirmed by XRD, SEM and EDS analyses. The synthesized materials are then used for the adsorptive removal of arsenic from the drinking water collected from various areas of District Dera Ghazi Khan, Punjab, Pakistan as well as from the standard samples. Different adsorption models (Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin, Dubinin-Radushkevich) have been employed to the adsorption data. The adsorption capacity calculated from Langmuir isotherm model was found in the range of 56µg g− 1 which is much higher as compared to already reported in the literature. The results indicate that the magnesium aluminate can be used for the removal of arsenic from drinking water.